Abstract
This paper presents a new SIMO radar system based on a harmonic radar (HR) stepped frequency continuous wave (SFCW) architecture. Simple tags that can be electronically individually activated and deactivated via a DC control voltage were developed and combined to form an MO array field. This HR operates in the entire 2.45 GHz ISM band for transmitting the illumination signal and receives at twice the stimulus frequency and bandwidth centered around 4.9 GHz. This paper presents the development, the basic theory of a HR system for the characterization of objects placed into the propagation path in-between the radar and the reflectors (similar to a free-space measurement with a network analyzer) as well as first measurements performed by the system. Further detailed measurement series will be made available later on to other researchers to develop AI and machine learning based signal processing routines or synthetic aperture radar algorithms for imaging, object recognition, and feature extraction. For this purpose, the necessary information is published in this paper. It is explained in detail why this SIMO-HR can be an attractive solution augmenting or replacing existing systems for radar measurements in production technology for material under test measurements and as a simplified MIMO system. The novel HR transfer function, which is a basis for researchers and developers for material characterization or imaging algorithms, is introduced and metrologically verified in a well traceable coaxial setup.
Highlights
The combination of a stepped frequency continuous wave (SFCW) radar and a multiple input multiple output (MIMO) system topology has only recently been explored, with the basic theory being published in [1]
A comparison of the single input multiple output (SIMO) radar with the MIMO and interpolated interferometric radar was made in [3], which especially elaborated upon the clutter problems associated with SFCW radar
These issues can, be mitigated to a degree, when the harmonic radar (HR) principle is combined with SFCW MIMO radar
Summary
The combination of a stepped frequency continuous wave (SFCW) radar and a multiple input multiple output (MIMO) system topology has only recently been explored, with the basic theory being published in [1]. The outstanding feature of an HR system for indoor applications its inherent clutter rejection ability, as the receiver only detects the second harmonic generated from the transmitter’s fundamental frequency illumination signal by the nonlinear response of the tag and strongly rejects the otherwise dominant linear reflections, or clutter, on the fundamental frequency caused by walls or large obstacles This feature makes such a system especially attractive for in-line radar measurements in production environments, which generally encompass a dynamic environment with a lot of moving reflective metal parts. This paper presents an experimental verification of the newly added HR transfer function With this very special setup of a HR measurement system in a coaxial line system, significantly better and more resilient measurements can be performed than in free space
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