Comparative analysis of ISAR and tomographic radar imaging at W-band frequencies

Date of Award

2017

Degree Name

M.S. in Electrical and Computer Engineering

Department

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering

Advisor/Chair

Advisor: Michael C. Wicks

Abstract

As radar technology development advances and more devices are employed in traditional frequency allocation bands, such as the microwave portion of the frequency spectrum, users are increasingly struggling to operate amidst this spectrum congestion. With spectrum congestion on the rise, application performance degradation is progressively being realized due to scarce available bandwidth. Therefore, users, such as the 5G wireless community and the automotive industry, are exploring applications at higher portions of the frequency spectrum with such efforts being focused in the millimeter wave (MMW) frequency bands. A number of novel applications, such as full-body imaging and automotive collision avoidance systems, have been improved on or realized with the aid of MMW frequencies and their associated phenomenology. However, this portion of the spectrum lags, in some cases by orders of magnitude, far behind in research and development in comparison to other bands such as those found in the microwave region. Therefore, a clear need to aid the knowledge base and investigate MMW radar phenomenology has been undertaken in this thesis. The research this thesis documents concerns designing, building and, fielding a distributed aperture array W-band (MMW) radar system. This thesis details incrementing the current fielded radar system capability from mono-static to bi-static imaging configurations. An improved method for calibrating the radar system resulting in higher quality imagery is also documented. The defined radar system was designed with the goal of performing multi-static Tomographic imaging. The research covered in this thesis is the first step toward incrementing the fielded system to full maturity.

Keywords

Millimeter wave devices Design and construction, Inverse synthetic aperture radar, Tomography Image quality, Electrical Engineering, Engineering, Inverse Synthetic Aperture Radar, ISAR, Radar, Tomography, Tomographic Imaging, Radar Tomography, W-Band Radar Imaging, Millimeter Wave Radar Imaging, Distributed Aperture Array Radar

Rights Statement

Copyright © 2017, author

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