Vehicles detection experiments with Ka-band FMCW ISAR

FMCW (Frequency Modulation Continuous Wave) ISAR (Inverse Synthetic Aperture Radar) operating at Ka-band developed by us recently is a kind of portable, compact radar due to its relatively simple electronic and mechanical construction. For its short range detection performance, vehicles within tens of meters are taken as targets, which can be found easily to verify the function of system. In this paper, the Ka-band FMCW ISAR is introduced and discussed to monitoring moving vehicles. Compared with pulse mode, FMCW mode transmits less power and then saves the power amplifier. With its counterpart of transmitted signal as local oscillator, the receiver is simplified. When IF is produced by mixing transmitted signal and received signal, its frequency is low. Then, the A/D, processing and storage circuits are less complicated than those of the pulse-based ISAR systems. The results show that the designed Ka-band FMCW ISAR can give a high accuracy and resolution for monitoring the vehicles.