The proposed PhD topic is related to digital antenna and system architecture design required for modern radar systems.

The proposed PhD topic is related to digital antenna and system architecture design required for modern radar systems. The topic was chosen in collaboration with Leonardo UK according to the industrial requirements. The main focus of the PhD will be to design a digital antenna for radar applications and investigate digital-based beamforming as well as RF system architecture design and test. Other research topics include grating lobe mitigation, sub-array processing/calibrations, efficient aperture illumination as well as implementation and testing with the relevant digital hardware and antenna arrays.

The topics of antenna radar calibrations, the related signal processing approaches and the supporting hardware/software, are fundamentally linked to said radar design and system operation. The PhD will also investigate efficient strategies for periodic calibrations and self-calibrations which can enable simple approaches that can be applied in-field and in the factory setting, while also, complimenting existing calibration procedures. Considerations will also be made for sense-check techniques on the transmit/receive modules to understand if any calibrations are required for the antenna array system whilst in the field.