ABSTRACT: Radar is used in various military and civilian applications, integral to national defense and surveillance, weather monitoring, and air traffic control (ATC) management and guidance, among other critical use-cases. This whitepaper will first provide an overview of radar functionality, including a general summary of RF and microwave signal paths for both transmit and receive operations. It will then analyze the role of the local oscillator (LO) and how its performance can affect the system overall. Lastly, this whitepaper will reveal how to characterize LO behavior accurately with the LO substitution method using a high-performance signal generator.
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