FAULT DETECTION IN PHASED ARRAY ANTENNA SYSTEM USING COMPUTER SIMULATION

Abstract

With the electronic warfare system, the failure ofany part of that system to operate properly can cause theenemy to be able to get around counter measures and resultin loss of mission, aircraft and life. The antenna, a key partof any electronic warfare system receives the enemy’ssignal, helps determine the direction the signal is comingfrom, and sends the desired signal back to the enemy. Fieldtesting may not detect some faults because of the way thephased array antenna system is tested. This projectinvestigation uses a computer simulation to model andanalyze the antenna to see if additional faults can bedetected to increase the efficiency of the system with little orno change to the test equipment in the field. The resultsshowed a set of unique and distinct patterns that couldincrease the number of faults detected by the filed leveltesting.

Index Terms - Computer simulation, fault detection, phasedarray antenna system, and radio frequency interface unit.