PhD Thesis on Code Modulated Interferometric Imaging System using Phased Arrays

TL;DR

This thesis introduces a cost-effective code-modulated interferometric imaging system using phased arrays, demonstrating its operation, validation, and scalability through simulations and hardware prototypes at 10-GHz and 60-GHz bands.

Contribution

It presents a novel method to reconfigure low-cost phased arrays as interferometric imagers using code modulation, enabling coherent processing and scalable imaging capabilities.

Findings

Validated system operation with behavioral models and simulations.

Demonstrated hardware imaging at 10-GHz with a 33-pixel camera.

Showcased scalability with a 169-pixel system imaging multiple sources.

Abstract

This work presents techniques which can allow low-cost phased-array receivers to be reconfigured as interferometric imagers and thereby reducing cost. Since traditional phased arrays power combine incoming signals prior to digitization, orthogonal code-modulation is applied to each incoming signal using phase shifters within each front-end. These code-modulated signals can then be combined and processed coherently through a shared hardware path. Visibility functions can be recovered through squaring and code-demultiplexing operations. The proposed system modulates incoming signals but demodulates desired correlations. Firstly, we present the operation of the system, a validation of its operation using behavioral models of a traditional phased array and a benchmarking of the code-modulated interferometer against traditional interferometer using simulation results and sensitivity analysis. Secondly, we present a simple CMI system operating in the license-free 60-GHz band using a four-element phased-array receiver. The four-element phased array is thinned to obtain a 13-pixel image and the system is demonstrated through a point-source detected at different locations. Finally, the operation and capabilities of code-modulated interferometry (CMI) are demonstrated at 10-GHz using commercially-available phased arrays. A 33-pixel, eight-element prototype is created using two commercially-available ADAR1000 phased-array receivers from Analog Devices Inc. The chips are connected at board level to a patch antenna array. The 33-pixel camera is demonstrated in hardware for point-source detection. Further to demonstrate the scalability of the concept, a 16-element, 169-pixels CMI imaging system is presented at 10-GHz using the four of the same commercially-available phased arrays from ADI. Two active point sources are imaged simultaneously to present the resolution of the system.