A $K$ -Band Portable FMCW Radar With Beamforming Array for Short-Range Localization and Vital-Doppler Targets Discrimination

This paper presents a printed circuit board realization of a <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$K$ </tex-math></inline-formula>-band portable frequency-modulated continuous-wave radar transceiver with beamforming array for short-range localization. The transmitter channel of the proposed radar consists of a free-running voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO) and a single patch antenna. A linear frequency-modulated chirp signal is generated by the VCO, which is controlled by an analog “sawtooth” voltage generator. The receiver channel has a four-element linear beamforming array, a six-port circuit, and a baseband circuit. The beam of the array can be continuously steered in a range of ±45° on the <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$H$ </tex-math></inline-formula>-plane through an array of vector controllers. Each vector controller is capable of simultaneously controlling the phase and the amplitude of the corresponding array element. The design principle of the binary-phase-shift attenuator, the vector controller, and the radar system are discussed. Calibration method of the array is introduced to minimize the errors caused by component variation and fabrication. The radiation patterns of the array with phase-only beam steering and phase-amplitude beamforming are measured and compared, demonstrating the advantage of the beamforming design. System-level experiments showed that the proposed solution is suitable for short-range localization. In addition, experiments with a human subject revealed the capability of the proposed radar system to discriminate a human target from other objects based on the vital-Doppler effect.

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