RF Front End for C Band Conical Beam Radars

My topic of research is to design a sophisticate scanning beam radar front end operating in C-band (4-8 GHz) with central frequency of 5.8 GHz. The front end will be such that it can steer its main beam in conical spiral. The hardware will be consisting of two modules. First module is 4*4 planar array antenna whose pattern is according to the demands of radars (i.e.; conical beam and side lobe level is less than -15dB). The second module is a phase shifting network consisting of hybrid couplers and varactor diodes. In this project, we will be requiring the knowledge of Antenna theory, microwaves and electronics. The end objective of this project is to develop a planar antenna array with beam scanning capability which will improve our understanding of antennas and radar systems. The deliverables will be planar antenna array and beam steering network. In past, radars at 2.4GHz has been designed but their beam pattern were not according to the practical radar systems. We will be requiring Material substrate FR4, pin diodes and varactor diodes as material resources and the software tools being used will be Ansoft HFSS, ADS2009 and AutoCAD.