Software-defined Corner Reflector for Satellite SAR Systems

Satellite SAR systems are becoming an important source of information for several types of remote sensing applications because they allow the analysis of this planet that is always changing; in this sense, the research is constantly focused on this technology to increase the performance. Ground targets are key factor in SAR applications since they support the image acquisition process mainly with calibration and remote sensing geopositioning, and corner reflectors are one of the most frequently used for this purpose. In this paper a new approach is proposed for the corner reflector design; through the advantages of software-defined radio technology, the novel software-defined corner reflector (SDCR) takes all the benefits from the SDR technology and the classic corner reflectors design. After the presentation of the features of this new device, different SDCR prototypes will be described and tested in a controlled environment to verify the performance from a satellite SAR systems perspective.