Real-Time Mitigation of Short-Range Leakage in Automotive FMCW Radar Transceivers

Frequency-modulated continuous wave radar systems suffer from permanent leakage of the transmit signal into the receive path. Besides leakage within the radar device itself, an unwanted object placed in front of the antennas causes so-called short-range (SR) leakage. In an automotive application, for instance, it originates from signal reflections of the car’s own bumper. Particularly the residual phase noise of the downconverted SR leakage signal causes a severe degradation of the achievable sensitivity. In an earlier work, we proposed an SR leakage cancellation concept that is feasible for integration in a monolithic microwave integrated circuit. In this brief, we present a hardware prototype that holistically proves our concept with discrete components. The fundamental theory and properties of the concept are proven with measurements. Further, we propose a digital design for real-time operation of the cancellation algorithm on a field programmable gate array. Ultimately, by employing measurements with a bumper mounted in front of the antennas, we show that the leakage canceller significantly improves the sensitivity of the radar.