The MS3 group millimeter waves (77 GHz) automotive radar facilities enable the group to conduct research and education within the automotive sensing applications.

The Dolphin 77 GHz automotive radar data aquisition board, generously provided by NXP in support of the NWO funded projects, is built around a single chip mm-Wave FMCW radar transceiver with integrated flexible waveform generator, transmitter, receiver, analogue-to-digital converters and digital serializer.

The radar provides

• Full 3TX, 4RX Beam Steering/ MIMO functionality for high resolution angle of arrival target detection.
• Full 76GHz-81GHz frequency band coverage enabling interference mitigation.
• 1 GHz chirp bandwidth for high resolution range detection.

Figure 1. Dolphin Radar mounted on car bumper

Figure 2. Video with results of MIMO monopulse signal processing

Figure 3. An examples of radar-based simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) of the car on the TU Delft campus road

The Double Credit Card (DCC) development kits are other available for the research the NXP automotive radars, each of them combines a PCB containing the same radar chipset as the Dolphin radar, with a PCB dedicated to signal processing in a small form factor. Two DCCs are used to study the communication capabilities between radars, using phase coding of the transmitted waveform.

Figure 4. NXP Double Credit Card (DCC) development kit

Figure 5. Video that shows the results of phase coding experiment using the Double Credit Card radar development board (DCC)

The IWR1443 Single-Chip 76-to-81GHz mm-Wave Sensor Evaluation Module and the IWR1642 Single-Chip 76-to-81GHz mm-Wave Sensor Integrating DSP and MCU Evaluation Module are generously provided by Texas Instruments (TI) in support of our radar education.

Figure 6. The Texas Instruments (TI) Single-Chip 76-to-81GHz mm-Wave Sensor Evaluation Module

Both modules include:

• Full 2TX (+1TX elevation for the IWR1443), 4RX Beam Steering/MIMO functionality for high resolution angle of arrival target detection.
• Full 76GHz-81GHz frequency band coverage enabling interference mitigation.
• 4 GHz chirp bandwidth for high resolution range detection.

Figure 7. Lab sessions provide students hands on experience with real automotive 77 GHz MIMO radars measurements and signal processing

Study Characteristics of Human Motion using Automotive mm-Waves Radars in High Range and Doppler Frequency Resolution

Figure 8. A walking person on the range-azimuth angle plane - measurements using mm-Wave MIMO radar

Figure 9. A walking person on the range-Doppler frequency plane - measurements using mm-Wave MIMO radar

Back

Back to the MS3 group facilities: RadarLab