No abstract

A W-band target glint and background scene generator is developed for compact range hardware-in-the-loop (HWIL) seeker testing and characterization. The device comprises an Electronically Controlled Beamformer (ECB) capable of real time generation of wide variety of wavefronts in the near field of the system under test (SUT). The fine-pixelized ECB aperture with individual control of each pixel allows (in particular) formation of radar returns in a compact range by focusing and steering the (focused) Millimeter Wave (MMW) beam on the SUT aperture. Unlike compact range systems using limited number of radiators and focal plane optics, fine-pixelized ECB allows full glint simulation over SUT's field of view. ECB is compatible with currently used retransmitter and waveform simulator. We present the results of a simulation of the device's operation and compare them with the experiment. Major attention in both the simulations and the measurements was paid to the field distribution in the near-field region of the device.