AERIS-10 Brings Long-Distance Radar Scanning to the Maker Community

There are plenty of inexpensive, hobbyist-grade radar modules on the market for those who would like to experiment with the technology. However, the range of these sensors doesn’t extend much beyond the confines of a single room in your home. That greatly limits their potential applications. If you need significantly more range — on the order of kilometers — you’ll need to shell out hundreds of thousands of dollars for a commercial solution.

Or at least that was the case until Nawfal Motii got involved in this space. He has designed and built an open source radar system called AERIS-10 that costs up to 95% less than existing commercial hardware. The range extends beyond 20 kilometers, and there are plenty of details available to help you build your own. Or, if you’d prefer to buy a prebuilt unit, AERIS-10 will soon be available on Crowd Supply.

AERIS-10 is a fully programmable phased array radar operating at 10.5 GHz in the X-band. Unlike traditional low-cost radar modules, which rely on simple detection techniques and fixed beams, this system uses electronic beam steering to rapidly scan its environment. That capability is typically reserved for high-end military or industrial systems, where costs can easily exceed $250,000.

Motii’s design comes in two variants. The AERIS-10N “Nexus” model offers a range of up to 3 kilometers using an 8×16 patch antenna array, while the AERIS-10E “Extended” version pushes that range to 20 kilometers with a much larger 32×16 slotted waveguide array and high-power GaN amplifiers. Both systems combine electronic steering with mechanical rotation, allowing for full 360-degree coverage and volumetric scanning.

A central FPGA handles the heavy lifting of radar signal processing, including chirp generation, pulse compression, Doppler analysis, and target detection using techniques like CFAR and moving target indication. Meanwhile, an STM32 microcontroller manages system coordination — handling power sequencing, configuring RF components, and interfacing with sensors like GPS and IMU modules for precise positioning and orientation.

One of the central features of AERIS-10 is its use of pulse linear frequency modulation (LFM), a technique that significantly improves range resolution and sensitivity. Combined with phase-coherent transmit and receive chains, the system can extract both distance and velocity information for multiple targets simultaneously. This makes it suitable for applications ranging from drone tracking to environmental sensing and research.

The system’s operation is orchestrated through a Python-based graphical interface that provides real-time visualization of detected targets overlaid on a map. Behind the scenes, a complex nested scanning loop coordinates chirp sequences, electronic beam positions, and mechanical rotation steps to build a continuous 3D picture of the surrounding space.

The entire project — including schematics, firmware, and software — is open source. Developers can modify beamforming algorithms, experiment with signal processing pipelines, or network multiple radar units together for enhanced resolution.

Currently in an alpha prototype stage, the system has already demonstrated key capabilities such as electronic beam steering, pulse LFM operation, and basic target detection. Ongoing work includes optimizing signal processing workflows and preparing the design for scalable production. Check out the project’s GitHub repository for more details.