Title

Harmonic response vs. target orientation: a preliminary study of the effect of polarization on nonlinear junction detection

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

5-27-2022

Publication Title

Proceedings of the SPIE Radar Sensor Technology XXVI

Department

Department of Computer Science

Abstract

When an electromagnetically-nonlinear radar target is illuminated by a high-power stepped-frequency probe, a sequence of harmonics is unintentionally emitted by that target. Detection of the target is accomplished by receiving stimulated emissions somewhere in the sequence, while ranging is accomplished by processing amplitude and phase recorded at multiple harmonics across the sequence. The strength of the harmonics reflected from an electronic target depends greatly upon the orientation of that target (or equivalently, the orientation of the radar antennas). Data collected on handheld wireless devices reveals the harmonic angular-dependence of commercially-available electronics. Data collected on nonlinearly-terminated printed circuit boards implies the origin of this dependency. The results of this work suggest that electronic targets may be classified and ultimately identified by their unique harmonic-response-vs.-angle patterns.

DOI

10.1117/12.2617881

Original Citation

Gregory Mazzaro, Kyle Gallagher, Kelly Sherbondy, Alex Bouvy, Beatrice Perez, Timothy Pierson, and David Kotz. Harmonic response vs. target orientation: a preliminary study of the effect of polarization on nonlinear junction detection. Proceedings of the SPIE Radar Sensor Technology XXVI, volume 12108, article 1210803, 21 pages. Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers, May 27, 2022. doi:10.1117/12.2617881.

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