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To develop a cost-effective 77 GHz front radar towards serious automotive product, a single-board solution has been implemented and verified in this work. A compact printed circuit board (PCB) with all necessary components for complete radar module was built up on its both sides. The system architecture is based on the integration of specially designed antenna arrays with the monolithic millimetre-wave integrated circuit (MMIC) chip TEF8102 for 77 GHz transceiver front-end and the S32R274 for digital signal processing (DSP), and micro-controller as back-end, respectively. The radiation patterns of the antenna array for transmitting channel were characterized on radar module level and compared with simulated results. Good agreement on the field of view (FoV) between simulation and verification was observed. The transmitted linear frequency modulated continuous wave (LFMCW) signals were verified at centre frequency of 76.38 GHz with 800 MHz span. The power flatness achieved ± 1 dB in worst case. The error percentage regarding to the slope deviation in MHz/µs achieved 0.1%. A two-way test was done in real traffic scenario. The scattering points of four moving vehicles towards radar module were clearly captured. Static metallic rods could be stably detected too. This shows a satisfying verification for automotive front radar application a step further from system aspect.
Inspec keywords: road vehicle radar; antenna radiation patterns; CW radar; radar antennas; millimetre wave antenna arrays; FM radar; radar signal processing; millimetre wave radar
Subjects: Radar equipment, systems and applications; Radar theory; Signal processing and detection; Antenna arrays; Automobile electronics and electrics