77-GHz SAR Measurements with Integrated Sensors

Description

Recent advances enable the realization of low-cost and high performance mm-wave radar sensors suitable for miscellaneous applications. In this contribution, a 77-GHz frequency-modulated continuous-wave (FMCW) radar is used to realize a mm-wave imaging system. When dealing with distances up to a few hundred meters, FMCW radar systems gained increased importance due to their simple and cheap architecture. In addition, these sensors are robust against environmental stress like fume, dust, etc. Hence, they are of great importance in many industrial applications, e.g. filling level measurements or speed and range measurements in automotive usage. Radar systems with a single turnable antenna have limited angular resolution capabilities, which depend on the directivity of the antenna. Therefore, objects located at the same range but at distinct angles of observation can not be identified as separate targets in general. This major disadvantage can be overcome by conducting measurements at spatially separated locations, which is known as synthetic aperture radar (SAR). At the expense of an increased measurement time, high resolution images of the illuminated scene can be reconstructed. In our work, the actual image formation is done offline by means of digital signal processing, where the measured data are coherently accumulated. When operating SAR systems at mm-wave frequencies, cross-range resolutions of a few millimeters can be achieved.

Period	07 Jun 2011
Event title	15th International Conference on Sensors and Measurement Technology
Event type	Conference
Location	GermanyShow on map