Ka-Band SCORE Radar Front End

Abstract:
Over the last decades, the spaceborne remote sensing community has been focused on the development of imaging radars at RF frequencies such as S-band, L-band, C-band and X-band. According to ITU regulations (WRC 2015) the use of Ka-band for active spaceborne microwave remote sensing is allowed in the frequency band of 35.5 – 36 GHz. The studies have demonstrated, that Ka-band is an attractive frequency for imaging missions, especially for the realization of compact interferometric instruments. One of the challenges for a Ka-band synthetic aperture radar (SAR) is the high transmit power demand. This can be partially compensated by larger antennas forming a pencil beam and advanced SAR imaging technique e.g. SCORE.