Antenna requirements and architecture tradeoffs for an automotive forward looking radar

Automotive adaptive cruise control (ACC) requires a forward looking sensor to provide data on the location of other vehicles and objects relative to the direction of travel of the host vehicle. This involves discrimination of closely spaced vehicles and accurate measurement of the position of individual vehicles and objects. These angle discrimination and angle measurement requirements, together with the sensor field-of-view (FOV) needed, drive the antenna requirements and antenna architecture for an automotive forward looking radar (FLR). This paper develops the key antenna parameters of beamwidth, beam overlap and number of beams. Alternate antenna architectures and their suitability for ACC are then discussed