High Resolution binocular MIMO Radars at Millimeter Wave Frequencies (binoMIMO)

• Applicants: Professor Dr.-Ing. Reiner Thomä; Professor Dr.-Ing. Christian Waldschmidt
• Subject Area: Electronic Semiconductors, Components and Circuits, Integrated Systems, Sensor Technology, Theoretical Electrical Engineering
• Term: from 2016 to 2024
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 317632307

• Final Report Year: 2022

Final Report Abstract

The goal of the project was to combine a cooperative network of two spatially separated radars (binocular radar system) with methods of model-based signal processing in order to achieve a more robust detection and higher resolution of radar targets. The hardware realization and the development of an adapted signal processing were the main focus of the project work. Within the project, significant progress was made both in the field of hardware realization of distributed MIMO radars in the upper millimeter wave range and their calibration, and in the field of signal processing for MIMO radar systems. One challenge was to ensure the coherent operation of the radar system while taking into account a low-effort signal distribution. Various approaches were investigated for this purpose, which were evaluated simulatively and metrologically by means of a realized radar demonstrator. As a result, it was shown that distributed radar systems with noncoherent signal synthesis can be realized, which achieve a very large aperture and high detection performance comparable to the coherent composite. Due to the large aperture, it was found that classical methods for angle-dependent calibration of the radar system are very time-consuming. These problems could be solved using a new method for large aperture calibration based on modes, allowing a very accurate and efficient calibration. The results of the calibration are used by the signal processing. For signal processing, it was shown that non-idealities of the radar hardware, the high signal bandwidth and large aperture cause systematic signal interference and thus errors in target detection. Furthermore, stochastic interference such as phase noise was shown to cause problems in the unambiguous detection of targets. By developing a model-based signal processing adapted to the radar system, these interferences could be compensated to a large extent. The result is a more robust detection of targets. The achieved results in the field of signal processing are transferable to other fields of application with MIMO systems such as the extraction of multipath propagation information from radio channel measurements. It was shown that the binocular design of the radar system can be used to improve the target impression. Thus, the realized binocular radar system in combination with the developed signal processing represents a significant innovation and progress in the field of radar technology. The publication of the results in scientific journals shows the importance and acceptance of the achieved results within the scientific community.

Publications

• “Phase Noise Mitigation for Multistatic FMCW Radar Sensor Networks Using Carrier Transmission”. In: IEEE Microwave and Wireless Components Letters (Dez. 2018), S. 1143–1145
  A. Dürr, B. Schweizer, J. Bechter und C. Waldschmidt
  
• “High-Resolution 160-GHz Imaging MIMO Radar Using MMICs With On-Chip Frequency Synthesizers”. In: IEEE Trans. Microwave Theory Tech. (Sep. 2019), S. 3897–3907
  A. Dürr, D. Schwarz, S. Häfner, M. Geiger et al.
  
• “Mitigation of RF Impairments of a 160-GHz MMIC FMCW Radar Using Model-Based Estimation”. In: IEEE Trans. Microwave Theory Tech. 68.3 (2019), S. 1–9
  S. Häfner, A. Dürr, C. Waldschmidt und R. Thom
  
• “Calibration-Based Phase Coherence of Incoherent and Quasi-Coherent 160-GHz MIMO Radars”. In: IEEE Trans. Microwave Theory Tech. 68.7 (2020), S. 2768–2778
  A. Dürr, R. Kramer, D. Schwarz, M. Geiger et al.
  
• “Compensation of Motion-Induced Phase Errors and Enhancement of Doppler Unambiguity in TDM–MIMO Systems by Model-Based Estimation”. In: IEEE Sens. Lett. 4.10 (2020), S. 1–4
  Stephan Häfner und Reiner Thom
  
• “Mitigation of Leakage in FMCW Radars by Background Subtraction and Whitening”. In: IEEE Microwave Wireless Compon. Lett. 30.11 (2020), S. 1105–1107
  Stephan Häfner, André Dürr, Christian Waldschmidt und Reiner Thom
  
• “Highly Efficient Angular Array Calibration Based on the Modal Wave Expansion Technique”. In: IEEE Open Journal of Antennas and Propagation 2 (2021), S. 938–948
  A. Dürr, M. Linder, D. Schwarz und C. Waldschmidt
  
• “Parameter Estimation for Broadband mm-Wave FMCW MIMO Radars - A a Model-Based System Identification Perspectiv”. Diss. Technische Universität Ilmenau, 2021
  Stephan Häfner
  
• “Range-Angle Coupling and Near-Field Effects of Very Large Arrays in mm-Wave Imaging Radars”. In: IEEE Trans. Microwave Theory Tech. 69.1 (2021), S. 262–270
  A. Dürr, B. Schneele, D. Schwarz und C. Waldschmidt
  
• “A novel covariance model for MIMO sensing systems and its identification from measurements”. In: Signal Processing 197 (2022), S. 108542
  Stephan Häfner, André Dürr, Christian Waldschmidt und Reiner Thom
  
• “Coherent Measurements of a Multistatic MIMO Radar Network With Phase Noise Optimized Non-Coherent Signal Synthesis”. In: IEEE Journal of Microwaves (2022), S. 1–14
  André Dürr, Dennis Böhm, Dominik Schwarz, Stephan Häfner et al.