Advantages of CW Radar | disadvantages of CW Radar

This page covers advantages and disadvantages of CW Radar. It mentions CW Radar advantages or benefits and CW Radar disadvantages or drawbacks. It also describes CW radar basics.

What is CW Radar?

Introduction:
The radar which works based on use of continuous waveforms to determine target velocity is known as CW radar. It works as follows. The frequency of radar return wave (i.e. echo) remains at center frequency (f0) from stationary target while it shifts by an amount equal to doppler frequency from moving target. By measuring frequency difference, target relative velocity can be measured using CW radar. The figure-1 depicts block diagram of the CW radar with transmitter and receiver parts.

CW Radar Block Diagram

The velocity of moving target is measured using following equation.
Target velocity, Vt = (fd/ft)* (Vo/2)
Where,
fd = doppler shift frequency
ft = transmitter frequency
Vo = Free space velocity of EM wave

CW radar can be used for following.
• To indicate presence of moving target
• To find radial velocity of moving target
• To find object is moving towards radar or away from it.
• To find target's bearing angle and elevation angle.
Refer RADAR tutorial >>.

Benefits or advantages of CW Radar

Following are the benefits or advantages of CW Radar:
➨It is used for relative velocity measurement.
➨It is used for wide variety of applications as listed above.
➨It transmits power with lower value and hence does not interfere other wireless devices.
➨It is simple in construction.
➨The performance of CW radar is not affected due to stationary targets.

Drawbacks or disadvantages of CW Radar

Following are the disadvantages of CW Radar:
➨It does not measure range or distance of the target
➨It becomes difficult to take decision when there are large number of targets. In this situation, the CW radar system gets confused.



RADAR RELATED LINKS

RADAR tutorial   Doppler Radar   FMCW RADAR   RADAR BANDs   RADAR SCOPE   Weather Radar   Ground Penetrating Radar System   RADAR RANGE and RESOLUTION  

Advantages and Disadvantages of other wireless technologies

IrDA    HomeRF    Bluetooth    Radar    RF    Wireless    Internet    Mobile Phone    IoT    Solar Energy    Fiber Optic    Microwave    Satellite    GPS    RFID    AM and FM    LTE   

What is Difference between

difference between OFDM and OFDMA
Difference between SC-FDMA and OFDM
Difference between SISO and MIMO
Difference between TDD and FDD
FDMA vs TDMA vs CDMA
FDM vs TDM
CDMA vs GSM

RF and Wireless Terminologies