Concept and realization of a low-cost multi-target simulator for CW and FMCW radar system calibration and testing

Abstract

AbstractWe present the realization of an frequency-modulated continuous-wave radar target simulator, based on a modulated-reflector radar system. The simulator, designed for the 24 GHz frequency band, uses low-cost modulated-reflector nodes and is capable to simultaneously generate multiple targets in a real-time environment. The realization is based on a modular approach and thus provides a high scalability of the whole system. It is demonstrated that the concept is able to simulate multiple artificial targets, located at user-selectable ranges and even velocities, utilized within a completely static setup. The characterization of the developed hardware shows that the proposed concept allows to dynamically and precisely adjust the radar cross-section of each single target within a dynamic range of 50 dB. Additionally, the provided range-proportional target frequency bandwidth makes the system perfectly suitable for fast and reliable intermediate frequency-chain calibration of multi-channel radar systems. Within this paper we demonstrate the application of the concept for a linear sweeped frequency-modulated continuous-wave radar. The presented approach is applicable to any microwave-based measurement system using frequency differences between transmit- and receive signals for range- and velocity evaluation, such as (non-)linear sweeped as well as pure Doppler radar systems.