Analysis of Ultra-Wideband Pulse Scattered from Planar Objects

Abstract: Ultra-wideband (UWB) pulses scattered from objects contain essential information. By analyzing the scattered pulse, the objects can be located, imaged and characterized. This thesis focuses on characterizing physical and electrical properties of planar metallic and dielectric objects by analyzing the scattered UWB pulse. In the analysis of UWB pulse scattered from planar metallic objects, we establish an analytical model to estimate the scattered UWB pulse. Furthermore, we formulate a frequency-averaged radar cross section (RCS) to estimate the radar signature of an object based on UWB radar measurements. In the analysis of UWB pulse scattered from planar dielectric objects buried in ground, we establish a numerical model, based on mean square error (MSE) method, to estimate the depth, thickness and complex permittivity of the buried objects. Multiple experiments validate the proposed methodologies of analyzing the scattered UWB pulse from the planar objects, providing agreement between the measured results and proposed theory.