Millimetre-Wave FMCW MIMO Radar System Development using Broadband SIW Antennas

In this paper, a novel millimetre-wave radar for collision avoidance and automotive applications is presented. The system uses frequency modulated continuous-wave (FMCW) transmission based on multiple input multiple output (MIMO) substrate-integrate waveguide (SIW) antennas operating in the K-band regime. The continuous sawtooth time-domain wave transmitted from two SIW antennas, by time-domain multiple access (TDMA), is detected with a half-lambda spaced four-element SIW receiver array at a distance of 4 meters in a calibrated anechoic chamber and verified with simulations. The high bandwidth and omnidirectionality of the SIW antennas in the horizontal plane, together with digital-beamforming for the achieved MIMO virtual array, offers an overall field-of-view of 130 degrees for the radar system. Also, the MIMO radar achieves an angular resolution of 14 degrees and offers a range resolution of 10 cm at a cost of only 6 transmitter and receiver elements in total.