Overview

This four-day short course/CPD module emphasises physical principles, modern radar systems and signal processing techniques (for both civilian and defence applications).

It's aimed at graduate-level engineers with a background in electronic engineering or physics.

Who this course is for

It's aimed at graduate-level engineers with a background in electronic engineering or physics.

You can use it to further your knowledge on radar systems or work towards gaining a Master's degree. 

Course content

You'll cover the following areas during the course:

• Introduction: historical background, radar terminology, radar band designations
• The radar equation: point targets, radar cross section, distributed targets, propagation, coverage diagrams
• Noise, clutter and detection: theory of detection, sea and land clutter models, Constant False Alarm Rate (CFAR) processing
• Displays: A-scope, B-scope, PPI, modern displays
• Doppler radar and MTI: Doppler effect, delay-line cancellers, blind speeds, staggered PRFs, adaptive Doppler filtering, micro-Doppler signatures
• Pulse Doppler processing and STAP: airborne radar, high, low and medium PRF operation, space-time adaptive processing
• Pulse compression: principles, the ambiguity function, the matched filter, chirp waveforms, SAW technology
• Waveform design: nonlinear FM, phase codes, waveform generation and compression
• Continuous wave radar: principles, radar equation, effect of phase and amplitude errors
• Synthetic aperture radar (SAR): principles, SAR processing, autofocus, spotlight mode, airborne and spaceborne systems and applications, interferometry, ISAR
• Tracking radar: conical scan, monopulse, tracker, track-while-scan, Kalman filters
• Phased array radar: phased array principles, array signal processing, multifunction radar, scheduling
• Electronic Warfare: ESM, ECM, ECCM; super-resolution, IFM, types of jammers, calculation of performance, adaptive arrays, LPI radar
• Stealth and counter-stealth: stealth techniques for aircraft and other target types, low frequency and UWB radar
• Bistatic radar: bistatic geometry, bistatic radar equation, synchronisation, illuminators of opportunity
• System design examples

Dates, assessment and certificates

The course runs over four days, with 6 to 8 teaching hours per day. This is followed by a three-hour tutorial.

Teaching will take place in person with some materials available online.

The course is assessed through an exam.

If you complete the course but not the exam, you'll receive a certificate of attendance.

If you take and pass the exam you'll get a certificate stating this, which includes your pass level.

Benefits of UCL's Electronics and Electrical Engineering CPD courses

You can take this course as a standalone (one-off) course/module, or accumulate it towards an MSc qualification (up to two standalone modules can be transferred towards the flexible MSc degree).

Benefits to employees
The programme offers the opportunity for professional people working in the telecommunications industry to develop their career, be able to respond to changes in their environment, and learn while they earn. It's also designed to give you the opportunity of working towards an MSc qualification from an academic institution whose quality is recognised world-wide.

Benefits to employers
Our flexible CPD courses enhance staff motivation and assists in the recruitment and retention of high-quality staff. It enables your company to keep ahead of the competition by tapping into world-leading research, and to profit from UCL's world class Telecommunications and Business expertise.

View the full range of related courses available.

Learning outcomes

On completion of this course, you should be able to do the following:

• Understand the essential principles of operating radar systems
• Apply appropriate mathematical and computer models relevant to radar systems to calculate system performance, and assess the limitations of particular cases
• Understand the design of radar signals, and Continuous Wave (CW) radar
• Understand the principles of synthetic aperture radar (SAR), its use in geophysical remote sensing and surveillance applications, and the digital processing used to form SAR images
• Design simple radar systems and the associated signal processing, at block diagram level
• Understand the principles of electronic warfare, stealth and counterstealth, and bistatic radar, and apply the appropriate design equations to calculate performance
• Analyse the performance of simple tracking radar systems
• Apply the relevant design equations to phased array antennae, and understand the advantages and constraints of phased array radar

Course team

Professor Hugh Griffiths

Hugh's research interests include radar sensor systems and signal processing (particularly synthetic aperture radar and bistatic and multistatic radar and sonar) as well as antennas and antenna measurement techniques. He's published over 300 papers and technical articles on these subjects. He's also a member of the Defence Scientific Advisory Council for the UK Ministry of Defence, and of the Supervisory Board for the UK Ministry of Defence's Defence Technology Centre in ElectroMagnetic Remote Sensing. He's a Fellow of the IEE, Fellow of the IEEE, and in 1997 he was elected to Fellowship of the Royal Academy of Engineering.

Course information last modified: 29 Jan 2024, 17:40