Accuracy limits of a K-band FMCW radar with phase evaluation

The FMCW radar technology offers the possibility to achieve very high target accuracy mainly limited by the SNR. In this paper the CRLB for an FMCW radar with phase evaluation is derived and different algorithms reaching the CRLB are presented. The algorithms are tested in a simulation and the simulation results are compared with measurement results of an existing FMCW radar. The used algorithms are the zero padded FFT, the chirp z-transform and the esprit algorithm. The FMCW radar works in the K-band with a center frequency of 24 GHz and a bandwidth of 1 GHz. An accuracy of 65 μm is reached.