Peak- and average power - Radartutorial 26/05/24, 1:27 PM
Radar Basics
Peak- and Average Power average power
The energy content of a continuous-wave radar transmission may be easily figured because pulse width
the transmitter operates continuously. However, pulsed radar transmitters are switched on
and off to provide range timing information with each pulse. The amount of energy in this Duty Cycle
waveform is important because maximum range is directly related to transmitter output
power. The more energy the radar system transmits, the greater the target detection range pulse repetition time
will be. The energy content of the pulse is equal to the peak (maximum) power level of the pulse power
pulse multiplied by the pulse width. However, meters used to measure power in radar system
do so over a period of time that is longer than the pulse width. For this reason, pulse-
repetition time is included in the power calculations for transmitters. Power measured over
such a period of time is referred to as average power.
where: Figure 1: Duty cycle, peak- and average power
P τ P = average power
Pi = pulsed power
D= = τ = pulse width
Pi Τ Τ = pulse-repetition time PRT (1)
Peak power must be calculated more often than average power. This is because most measurement instruments measure average power directly.
Transposing the upper equation gives us a common way for calculating peak power/average power.
Since the storage of the energy in the modulator, the power supply must make plant for the transmitter available a little more than the average power
only.
Duty cycle
The product of pulse width (τ) and pulse-repetition frequency (prf) as the reciprocal of the pulse period (Τ) in the above formula is called the duty cycle
of radar system. Duty cycle is the fraction of time that a system is in an “active” state. In particular, it is used in the following contexts: Duty cycle is
the proportion of time during which a component, device, or system is operated. Suppose a transmitter operates for 1 microsecond, and is shut off for
99 microseconds, then is run for 1 microsecond again, and so on. The transmitter runs for one out of 100 microseconds, or 1/100 of the time, and its
duty cycle is therefore 1/100, or 1 percent. The duty cycle is used to calculate both the peak power and average power of radar system.
For the performance of radar, an average power has more significance than a pulse power of the transmitter. Since the introduction of intrapulse
modulation and pulse compression, there is no longer any proportionality between pulse power and maximum range.
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