Millimeterwave radar high-resolution imaging via OFDM waveforms

A novel combination of millimeterwave linearly frequency modulated (LFM) technology and new radar imaging techniques can provide a good high-resolution imaging sensor that can be inboard in unmanned vehicles, in which stringent limitations of size, weight and power consumption are required. This paper presents an approach of multiple transmission and multiple reception in elevation for vehicle-borne millimeterwave radar high-resolution imaging. This radar employs orthogonal frequency diversity modulated (OFDM)-LFM waveforms, so as to obtain a high-resolution imagery over a wide swath coverage. The system concepts, geometry relations and signal models are provided. Computer simulation examples are also performed. Additionally, the generation of the OFDM waveforms with parallel direct digital synthesizer (DDS)-driven phase locked loop (PLL) synthesizer is discussed, and the block diagram of the synthesizer is provided.