A low-cost FMCW radar front end for imaging at 24 GHz to 33 GHz

In this paper, a 24 GHz to 33 GHz frequency-modulated continuous-wave radar (FMCW) system is proposed. Beginning in the range of 2 GHz to 2.7 GHz, three separate multiplication stages bring the frequency band to between 24 GHz and 33 GHz. The system is integrated with a set of planar Yagi antennas. A single planar Yagi antenna is included on the transmit side, while four antennas in a steerable uniform linear array (ULA) are placed at the receive side to increase the angular resolution. The expected output power is +12 dBm across the full 9 GHz bandwidth. Later work will allow this system to be used as a synthetic aperture radar (SAR) system.