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A high-sensitivity radar system featuring low weight and power consumption
Publikationstyp
Journal Article
Date Issued
2015-03-01
Sprache
English
TORE-URI
Journal
Volume
16
Issue
2
Start Page
99
End Page
105
Article Number
07032054
Citation
IEEE Microwave Magazine 2 (16): 07032054 (2015-03-01)
Publisher DOI
High-precision and sensitive radar is a challenging task and of great importance in today?s industrial, automotive, and medical applications. To promote this task at the student level, the Wireless Communications (MTT-20) and the Biological Effect and Medical Applications of RF and Microwave (MTT-10) Technical Committees coorganized an international High-Sensitivity Radar Student Design Competition for the first time. The contest was held during the 2014 IEEE Microwave Theory and Techniques Society International Microwave Symposium (IMS2014) in Tampa, Florida. The goal was to design a high-sensitivity monostatic radar system with minimum weight and power consumption that is able to detect the frequency of a moving target with sinusoidal motion. The target was placed at a 1-m distance, and the oscillation swing was limited to certain discrete values. Several radar system principles are applicable to achieve the desired design goals, each of them limited by specific constraints. The most popular ones are the frequency-modulated continuous wave (CW) [1], frequency-stepped CW [2], CW Doppler radar [3], and six-port radar [4]. Based on a careful evaluation of these system principles in the specific scenario, a CW radar architecture with a minimalistic hardware approach promised the best results. This article outlines the design considerations and presents the results of the hardware realization and signal processing algorithms of the winning radar system.