Signal Processing for mmWave MIMO Radar

Abstract: This thesis addresses the design study, implementation and analysis of signal processing algorithms for a 79 GHz millimeter-wave Phase Modulated Continuous Wave (PMCW) Multi Input Multi Output (MIMO) short range radar; performed in IMEC research institute (Leuven, Belgium). The radar system targets high resolution performance with low power consumption in order to integrate a full MIMO radar transceiver with digital processor and antennas in a compact package featuring a size of 1 cm2. Achieving such radar system characteristics requires the exploitation of a highly demanding digital architecture with signal processing gain and high range, speed and angle resolutions. The improved resolution and detection capabilities will be achieved by performing signal processing algorithms on the reflected waveform. The digital front-end implements parallel range gate processing with a bank of correlators that perform: pulse compression, coherent accumulation to further increase Signal to Noise Ratio (SNR) and N-point FFT to extract the Doppler information. The use of MIMO is proposed implementing a code domain technique in the PMCW waveform, the Outer Hadamard Code MIMO. This concept makes use of a unique sequence for all the transmitting antennas that is rendered by an outer sequence to ensure the orthogonality of the transmitted waveforms. The outer code makes use of the good cross-correlation properties of the Hadamard sequences and the waveform uses sequences that exhibit perfect auto-correlation profile, the Almost Perfect Autocorrelation Sequences (APAS). The MIMO implementation results in higher angular resolution and extra processing gain. The use of beamforming techniques in the radar allows the angle estimation of the detected targets; using rough and fine beamforming that provides with coarse and precise Angle of Arrival (AoA) estimation in an early and late stage respectively. A Constant False Alarm Rate (CFAR) processing stage is implemented in the stage of the system where higher signal processing gain is achieved. This algorithm allows the variation of the CFAR parameters and analyzes the detections in order to improve the probability of detection (Pd) while decreasing the probability of false alarm (Pfa). A series of simulations with different scenarios and variable parameters are set in order to analyze the performance of the system. The simulations analyze the gain achieved in each stage and their outcomes show an impressive processing gain that can reach SNR improvements as high as 77 dB for a small virtual array while keeping the Pfa low with the CFAR adjustment. The use of bigger arrays demonstrates the possibility to enable clear detections for low Radar Cross Section (RCS) targets in far distances of the unambiguous range. The use of beamforming shows interference reduction improvement as the beam widths narrow with the increasing number of virtual array antennas. These results have been achieved while keeping the system design parameters to a range resolution of 7.5 cm for a maximum range of 37.5 meters with speed resolution of 0.2 m/s and a maximum detectable speed of 12.66 m/s. The outcomes support the good performance of the signal processing techniques implemented and the benefits in applying them in a SoC mmWave MIMO radar.