Millimeter wave FMCW radar system simulations including a 3D ray tracing channel simulator

In this paper a millimeter-wave radar system simulation environment for frequency-modulated continuous-wave (FMCW) radar using a 3D ray tracing channel simulator is presented. Therefore we use Agilents´ RF design environment ADS^® for system simulation and calculate the channel impulse response based on the data received from a 3D ray tracer in a Matlab^® co-simulation. To reduce computing time the whole signal flow is processed in a complex baseband representation and scattering center models are used as substitute for complex polygon targets as further improvement. Nevertheless all effects occurring at harmonic bands and at DC due to nonlinearities in the transmitter and receiver circuits are well reflected in the simulation. A typical road scenario is simulated and the results show the capabilities of the simulation technique in terms of speed and accuracy.