SharpEye™ represents a radical departure from convention because of its low power RF architecture. Whereas traditional navigation radars use short high power (typically 25-30 kW) pulses of microwave energy to detect objects on the sea surface, the SharpEye™ transceiver have a nominal peak output power into the antenna of just 200W, operating with duty ratios of up to 13%. This high duty ratio, made possible by the advanced transmitter design and pulse compression techniques in the receiver, results in an equivalent transmitted peak power of 200kW assuming a maximum pulse compression ratio of 1,000:1. What also sets SharpEye™ apart is its use of Doppler processing to determine the radial component of the relative radar target velocity. Echoes received from a train of pulses are processed in a bank of coherently integrated narrowbandrnfilters that resolve and enhance targets within specific velocity bands, and by using this filtering technique, SharpEye™ is able to separate targets from clutter through their differing radial velocity components. This additional dimension provides a significant advantage over existing radar systems in the detection of small targets in sea clutter or rain.
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