THE CHINESE UNIVERSITY OF HONG KONG

Microwave Range Finder

Hui Kai Man

香港中文大學電子工程學系
DEPARTMENT OF ELECTRONIC ENGINEERING

p.1
 ERG 4920BD - Thesis II, 2006-2007

Microwave Range Finder

Author: Hui Kai Man

Student I.D.: 03648773

Supervisor: Professor K.K Cheng

Associate Examiner: Professor C.S. Choy

A project report presented to the

Chinese University of Hong Kong
In partial fulfilment of the
Degree of Bachelor of Engineering

Department of Electronic Engineering

The Chinese University of Hong Kong
April, 2007

p.2
 Abstract

In this project, I will concentrate on the system level design, includes deeply

explanation of two modulation methods, they are Frequency Modulation Continuous

Wave (FM-CW) radar and Moving Target Indication (MTI) radar; the general speaking

of system design flow and how my project related.

And then realize the Frequency Modulation Continuous Wave (FM-CW) radar system

by building up the block diagram.

Then explain how to build a component block by with simple circuitry and the cost

summary.

p.3
Acknowledgements

I would like to give a special thank to my supervisor, Professor Cheng Kwok Keung,

Michael (B.Sc., Ph.D. (London), MIEEE, AMIEE), for giving me the chance to work on

this project. His suggestions and comments gave me a direction and improved the

quality of my work a lot.

I would like to thank Wong Fai Leung, Fred, for providing many useful suggestions

regarding the system test, system block of the radar.

p.4
Content

1. INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................................................. 7

1.1. CLASSIFICATION ................................................................................................................................ 7

1.2. APPLICATION....................................................................................................................................... 9

2. THEORY ................................................................................................................................................. 9

2.1. DOPPLER SHIFT AND DOPPLER FREQUENCY ...................................................................................... 9

2.2. CONTINUOUS WAVE (CW) RADAR.....................................................................................................11

2.3. FREQUENCY MODULATED-CONTINUOUS WAVE (FM-CW) RADAR ................................................ 12

2.4. MOVING TARGET INDICATION (MTI) RADAR .................................................................................. 17

2.5. METHODOLOGY ............................................................................................................................... 21

2.6. SUPER HETERODYNE RECEIVER ................................................................................................ 22

3. SYSTEM LEVEL DESIGN ................................................................................................................. 25

3.1. DESIGN FLOWS.................................................................................................................................. 25

3.2. BLOCK BUILDING ............................................................................................................................. 27

4. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS ............................................................................................................. 29

4.1. CW RADAR SYSTEM WITH SIDEBAND SUPERHETERODYNE RECEIVER ....................... 29

4.1.1.SIMULATION METHOD.................................................................................................................. 29

p.5
 4.1.2.SIMULATION SETUP ....................................................................................................................... 30

4.1.3.SIMULATION RESULT .................................................................................................................... 32

4.1.4.EXPERIMENTAL SETUP................................................................................................................. 35

4.1.5.EXPERIMENTAL RESULT .............................................................................................................. 38

4.1.6.EXPERIMENT DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION ..................................................................... 43

4.2. FMCW RADAR SYSTEM WITH SIDEBAND SUPERHETERODYNE RECEIVER ................. 44

4.2.1.SIMULATION SETUP ....................................................................................................................... 44

4.2.2.SIMULATION RESULT .................................................................................................................... 46

4.2.3.EXPERIMENTAL SETUP................................................................................................................. 47

4.2.4.EXPERIMENTAL RESULT .............................................................................................................. 49

5. COST SUMMARY ............................................................................................................................... 51

6. DISCUSSIONS AND CONCLUSIONS .............................................................................................. 52

REFERENCES .................................................................................................................................................... 53

APPENDICES ..................................................................................................................................................... 54

p.6
1. Introduction

Radar is an abbreviation for Radio Detection and Ranging. In general, radar system

use modulated waveforms and directive antennas to transmit electromagnetic

energy into a particular space to search for targets. Objects within that space will

reflect portions of this energy back to the radar. These echo signals are then

processed by the radar receiver to extract target information including velocity,

range, and angular position, to identify targets.

1.1. Classification

In system level design, it is important to know the overview of the technology

available, we may start from classification. Radar can be classified base on radar

characteristics and functionality. They are frequency band, antennas type,

waveforms modulation. Among these, radars are most often classified by the types

of waveforms modulation and operating frequency.

About operating frequency, we may classify radar into different frequency bands,

such as L-band, S-band, they are in between 1GHz to 4 GHz, and often used in ship

based systems that are used in long and medium range application. Such as air traffic

control search. Milli-Meter Wave band, which is normally greater than 34 GHz,

p.7
however, this range of frequency will suffer from the atmospheric attenuation, so

they are limited to very short range application.

About waveforms utilization, basically, radar can be continuous wave or Pulsed

Radars. Continuous wave (CW) radar is those continuously emit electromagnetic

wave, it requires two antennas for transmission and reception; in some low power

radars we can use a duplexer with one antenna to do the same job. CW radar utilizes

Doppler shift effect to accurately measure target and angular position. However,

target range information cannot be extracted. Most of the application is velocity

search and track, such as Police Traffic radar for speeding detection. To obtain range

information, waveform modulation is required. The common modulation is

frequency modulation (FM). FM-CW radar is a possible choice to my radar.

Pulse (PW) Radars, can be further classified basic on the pulse repetition frequency

(PRF), they are low PRF radar, which is used for detect range where target velocity is

not interested, medium PRF radar, and high PRF radars, which is used for detect

target velocity.

p.8
1.2. Application

In my project, the radar system is used to detect human being intruders within an

area, which is a circular opening area with 100M in radius, present with some trees

and other stationary objects. The detection target is assumed to a man size and its

velocity is assumed not faster than a vehicle, which is 30Km/hr.

Furthermore, the radar system is wanted to be cheap.

2. Theory

During system design, deeply understand to each methodology is a must procedure in

order to know their advantages and disadvantages.

2.1. Doppler Shift and Doppler frequency

Doppler Effect is the basis working principle for detecting target velocity. It will

occur either the source or the observer is in motion; the result will be an apparent

frequency shift, called Doppler shift frequency. The following will be the step to

determine Doppler frequency.

Assume the distance between target and radar is R; therefore, the distance of the

p.9
wave to go and return back is 2R. Assume  is the transmitted wavelength, the total

number of wavelengths  in between this path is 2R/. If the target is in motion, R is

continually changing. A change of the number of complete wavelengths 2R/ with

respect to time (second) is equal to a frequency, which is Doppler shift frequency as

it is produced by the relative velocity between the target and radar.

2 dR 2
   v  fd
 dt 

Where v is the relative velocity, fd is Doppler frequency,  is transmitted signal‟s

wavelength. [1]

From the equation, we can found out if the relative velocity is large, the Doppler

shift frequency will increase together.

p.10
2.2. Continuous Wave (CW) Radar

This is a block diagram of CW radar, where f (t) is the transmitted signal, f(d) is the

Doppler shift frequency, f (t)  f (d) is the signal reflected by the target. The

transmitter is connected to the antenna through a duplexer. Since the transmitter

and receiver are both “on” continuously, we may use a circulator to be the duplexer.

[2]

The transmitted signal f(t) reach the moving target and is changed in frequency by

the motion, which becomes f(t)f(d). This echo signal will reflected back and caught

by antenna and passed to the detector by the duplexer. The frequency difference

p.11
between the two signals is the Doppler frequency. This signal is then amplified and

filtered; the filter will do the low frequency cutoff to reject any DC component of

the signal caused by an echo from a stationary object, and allow the smallest

expected Doppler frequency to pass. So that only the signal with frequency f(d) is

remained and can be seen on an indicator.

2.3. Frequency Modulated-Continuous Wave (FM-CW) Radar

FM-CW radar is developed base on Continuous wave radar. Compare with CW radar,

the transmitter continuously emits a signal which is modulated, so the frequency is

changed in a known fashion, every part of the echo signal will not looks like any

other parts anymore, this make the signal transmitted by FM-CW radar become a

wide bandwidth signal. On the other words, the signal is changed in frequency with

respect to time, this realize the time marking on transmission signal and the time of

return can be recognized. When the echo returns and caught, its frequency will be

compared to the new frequency radiated in transmitter; so that we can measure the

range as CW radar cannot do that.

p.12
This is the block diagram of FM-CW radar.

The main difference between CW radar and FM-CW radar is the addition of the

modulation block and the Frequency counters.

The modulation block will modulate the transmitted signal into, for example,

sinusoidal, sawtooth, triangular, or of any shape, as long as the frequency is changing

and the rate of change is known.

p.13
A simple form is triangular modulation. For

example (shows in fig. a) the frequency is

modulated at a frequency range f (df) over a time

period fm. The solid line represents the

transmitted signal; the dotted line represents the

frequency of the received echo from a stationary

fig. a

target. They are in the same form except the time

delayed . Where = 2R/c, R is the distance between the target and radar, and c is

the speed of light.

On the lower part of fig. a shows the beat frequency, fb, which is the different

frequency between the echo signal and the new transmitted signal. For the

stationary target, the beat frequency produced due only to the target‟s range. From

the similar-triangle theory, we have

2R
fb  2 f m f
c

Where fb is the beat frequency, fm is the time period of frequency modulation, f is

the frequency range of modulation frequency. We may obtain the range R from the

beat frequency.

p.14
If the target is in motion, the echo signal will be

shifted either upwards or downwards. Refers to the

example shown on the fig. b, the target is moving

towards the radar with slow speed from far

distance. The beat frequency will be the resultant

of Doppler frequency (fd) and the frequency due to

fig. b
the range (fr).

The block “frequency counter” are used to discriminate the frequency fr and fd by

finding the average and difference of the beat frequency. The above example shown

in fig. a and fig. b is assumed fr > fd, so that the average frequency counter can

1
extract range frequency (fr) from [( f r  f d )  ( f r  f d )] in order to get the range,
2

and the difference frequency counter can extract Doppler frequency from

1
[( f r  f d )  ( f r  f d )] in order to get the relative velocity.
2

However, if the target is come with high speed at short range, then fr < fd, the sign of

components inside Beat frequency will be changed, the small portion of Beat

frequency will become” f d  f r ”, instead of “ f r  f d ”. As the result, the roles of the

p.15
averaging and the difference-frequency measurements are reversed; the averaging

counter will measure Doppler velocity, and the difference counter will measure the

range. [1]

As the result, if we wrongly assigned the role of averaging counter and difference

counter. The measuring result of fd and fr will be reversed.

This can be overcome by giving an assumption to the system, such as setting the

maximum speed of the moving target. So that we can set a frequency to make sure fd

will not greater than fr forever. This is a simply but not a good method.

Another method is to replace the frequency counter with a Frequency discriminator.

Assuming the transmitted signal to be sinusoidal modulated. The signal frequency

going out from the amplifier is

2fRf m
f   fd  sin(2f m t  T ) . . . . . . . . .(from Reference [1])
c
2R
Where fIF is the frequency of the IF; fd is the doppler frequency; T  f m  ; fm is
c

the modulation period; f is the frequency range of the frequency modulation.

This signal‟s voltage consist of a steady component corresponding to the Doppler

p.16
frequency fd and an AC component of frequency fm with amplitude proportional to

range R. As the frequency discriminator output voltage is proportional to the input

frequency and is continuous rather than discrete. Therefore, the Doppler velocity

may be measured by averaging the discriminator output. Range can be extracted

from the AC component in a narrowband filter centered about the frequency fm. [1]

To obtain a better sensitivity and stable, a superheterodyne receiver can be used,

the received signal frequency will then be shifted upwards by the signal from local

oscillator. As the flicker noise‟s amplitude is proportional to 1/f, where f is a signal

frequency. So flicker noise can be overcome, and obtain a better signal to noise ratio

[6]

2.4. Moving Target Indication (MTI) Radar

MTI radar is a kind of pulse wave radar to handle the Doppler shift to indicate the

moving target. In MTI radar, the phase of the echo signal will be compared with the

phase of a transmitted signal, also called reference signal. Echo signal from fixed

targets will have fixed phase differences from the reference signal; moving targets

will produce echo signal with continuously changing phase due to the Doppler shift.

As the result, it is easy to discriminate them by using MTI radar.

p.17
This is a block diagram of MTI radar.

The oscillator may be a magnetron which is modulated by the pulse, represented as

f (t )  A1 sin 2f t t where A1 is the amplitude, ft is the carrier frequency. The signal

will be transmitted and received by the antenna and divided by duplexer, which is

usually some form of Transmit-Receive (TR) tube; The stable local oscillator (STALO)

provides a very stable RF signal which differs from the transmitted frequency by the

intermediate frequency. In other words, it which acts similar to a local oscillator in a

typical superheterodyne circuit. Therefore, the output of the receiver mixer will be

the sum of frequency of echo signal and STALO signal which is called IF signal.

p.18
Coherent local oscillator (COHO) oscillates at the intermediate frequency, the phase

of it‟s output signal will be reset once the pulse from transmitted signal go to the

locking mixer. So that the COHO signal is always coherent with the transmitted signal

and can be used as a reference signal, represented as Vref  A2 sin 2f t t , where A2 is

the amplitude of reference signal.

The echo signal voltage which is Doppler shifted can be represented

 2f t 2 R 
as Vecho  A3 sin2 ( f t  f d )t  , where A3 is the amplitude of signal received
 c 

from a target at a range R, fd is the Doppler shift frequency, t is time, c is the speed

of light. The phase shift is due to the time used for propagation the distance 2R.

After passing through the receiver mixer, only the low frequency component from

 4f t R 
the mixer is left, and it is represented by Vdiff  A4 sin 2f d t   . This voltage
 c 

will vary with time as Doppler frequency fd not equal to zero, which is produced by

moving target. For stationary object, the reflected signal will not vary with time.

p.19
Fig. c shows the output of the phase detector as a function of time for successive

pulses, which is proportional to the phase difference between the reference signal

and the echo signal. The butterfly-like response is due to the Doppler shift of that

moving target as described above.

The signal passes through a delay line and canceller. Since the phase of the signal

from fixed object doesn‟t change but from moving target will change continuously.

The delay line will delay all signal one inter-pulse interval and subtract from the

next pulse. As the result, signal from fixed object will be cancelled but the moving

target will not be cancel so they are clearly shown. Fig. d is the output of the Delay

p.20
line + canceller,

The display of fig. c and fig. d can be achieved by connecting the Delay line +

canceller to A-scope. A-scope representation shows the amplitude vs. time (range)

of the input signal in one successful sweep.

Once we detect the un-cancelled signal on the screen, we may knew it‟s range and

moving velocity immediately, and this may achieve our goal.

2.5. Methodology

For short range system, pulse radar cannot handle the job easily; it is because the

speed of light is too fast to travel 200m, a highly accurate and low noise RF circuitry

is required to detect the little change in phase and the return time of the echo

signal.

For a cheap system, pulse radar are required to provide very high peak RF power,

compare with CW radar, the peak RF power is much low for the same range detection.

To provide such high power required a expensive transmitters such as magnetron,

and klystron amplifier. [1]

p.21
Therefore, we would choose FM-CW radar to achieve my goal.

2.6. Super heterodyne receiver

In our radar system, the object velocity is relatively very low when compared with

the speed of microwave, with a short detection range, as the result, the detected

frequency is always small, in the order of hundred to fifty thousand Hz.

In FM-CW radar system, the basic schematic is as the following:

p.22
The output of the simple receiver, that‟s f(d), is around few hundred Hz sometimes.

This range of frequency is so low that will be covered by flicker noise, and making

the sensitivity extremely low.

Flicker noise, occasionally called “pink noise”, is a kind of noise whose power

spectra P(f) as a function of frequency f, that is P( f )  1 / f  , where  is

approximately unity. [9]

To deal with this, we have to introduce super heterodyne receiver. The following

shows the schematic of FM-CW radar system with super heterodyne receiver:

p.23
In the super heterodyne receiver, a intermediate frequency fIF will be generated to

mix with the received signal. Intermediate frequency is the mixing output of carrier

frequency signal and the local oscillator frequency signal, which is usually low

frequency. After passing through wideband bandpass filter, the intermediate

frequency will be the lower sideband of the mixer.

Then the intermediate frequency signal will used to mix with the echo signal instead

of transmitted signal. As the result, the resultant signal will be shifted upwards from

f(d) to fIF +f(d). This resultant frequency is high enough to overcome the flicker noise

and increase the radar receiver sensitivity largely.

p.24
3. System Level design

3.1. Design flows

To build a radar system, firstly we need to clearly define the requirement or problem

or mission with the customer, in my project, supervisor is my customer. Each

meeting we held had provided me a chance to realize the customer‟s requirement.

Secondly, examining all possible solutions which may achieve my goal, each

possibility is carefully studied and analyzed to determine whether it can satisfy the

desired requirements. In this project, we have to study all basic theories of radar

system, including the antenna, transmitters, mixers, receivers, modulation methods,

such as FM-CW radar and MTI radar, radar cross section. This is important step as

everything will be base on the decision made in this step. For any wrong decision,

the penalties will be to re-design a component, even a system.

Once the optimum system has been selected, a more detailed design study must be

made and the block diagram should be improved to more complete and specific.

After studying, we can do the stimulation of the designed block diagram using RF-

simulation software such as Agilent Advanced Design System 2005 (ADS2005). In my

p.25
project, after completing the block diagram of the radar, we may start to stimulate

the chosen modulation methods, so that to make sure the chosen methods and the

block diagram can give us expected results. To avoid realizing any error after the

system has been built. This can save time and money. Another important point to do

simulation is that we can optimize parameters of each block. Moreover, we should

care all effects which will occur in real components, such as parasitic effect of RF

components.

Afterwards, we may start to design the lower level circuitry for each block.

Such as replacing the duplexer block with a designed a circuit base on PIN-diodes,

rat-race coupler or ferrite circulator; to find a suitable Voltage Control Oscillator

(VCO) for the radar transmitter, design a branch coupler circuit to be the mixer.

Fourth, we have to actual development of the components of system, this is time

consuming. In this project, we will first build up those components which is not

general, which means cannot simply find an existing equipments to replace. Such as

the duplexer, which is bandwidth and frequency depends. For those components

which are more general, we may temporary use existing components from the

laboratory for the integration testing, such as the antenna, modulation machine,

p.26
they are more universal to application, but also expensive as they are

multi-functioning machines; or they are not totally fulfill our expectation. So we

should finally build them with low cost and simply circuitry if we can.

Finally do the block testing, integrated testing, and to see whether the system fulfill

our requirement. If fail, we have to rebuild a circuit or even redesign a block.

3.2. Block building

To reduce the cost, this is one of requirements. After some research, we have found

some blocks of radar block diagram can be built by some sample circuit.

Such as duplexer, we may build it base on PIN diodes; it has the advantages of good

isolation, fast recovery time and long life. However, they have some disadvantages,

when a high transmitted power is used; additional protection is needed to protect

the receiver. [3][5]

The antenna can be made with an antenna array by combining four patch antennas

and two Wilkinson power dividers to increase the directivity and reduce the beam

width. [4] So that the radar transmitted power can be reduced, as the antenna is

more efficient.

p.27
Mixer can be built with diodes, to form a double-balanced mixer, or single-balanced

mixer, or single-ended mixer. Double-balanced mixer is slightly costly than others.

Double-balance mixer, however, got better dynamic range, low conversion loss, and

low noise. [7] The following schematic shows one type of Double-balanced mixers -

ring diode design

p.28
4. Experimental Results

4.1. CW radar system with sideband superheterodyne receiver

4.1.1. Simulation method

In system level of our project, we use Advanced Design System 2005A to do the RF

system simulation. Inside, circuit envelope simulation and transient simulation are

used.

Circuit Envelope (CE) simulation can be considered as a type of time-varying

Harmonic Balance simulation (HB), which is a frequency-domain analysis technique

for simulating nonlinear circuit and systems. HB simulation is performed at each

time step specified by the parameter “Step” in the CE simulation control. Usually in

CE simulation, there is at least one sinusoidal source that is modulated in the time

domain. The following shows the symbol of CE simulation with 2 signal sources

frequency, 800MHz and 3GHz:

p.29
Transient simulation is a time-domain analysis.

4.1.2. Simulation setup

In the simulation, we have some assumption:

1. Object target moving at 15m/s towards the radar system

2. The radar system is operating at 3GHz

3. The local oscillation frequency is set at 800MHz

The follow is the schematic of the sideband super heterodyne CW radar system:

To make a clear schematic, both transmitter and receiver antenna are modeled as

following:

p.30
The Butterworth Bandpass filter is used to simulate the bandwidth of the antenna.

Besides, we have the target model to transit the into RF to RF+/-fd where fd is the

shifting frequency. The schematic of this model is shown as follow:

p.31
4.1.3. Simulation result

Figure1 Figure2

Figure1 shows the signal of wire “tp1”, which is just before the Butterworth

bandpass filter.

Figure2 shows the signal of wire “tp2”, which is the filtered “tp1” signal.

It is clearly shown many tones are filtered out, including the main noisy tone at 3.8

GHz, which is the upper sideband of the mixer. And out desired signal is the lower

sideband of mixer output.

However, there are some small tones remains shown in figure2, it is because the

Butterworth bandpass filter is not a perfect bandpass filter. The edge is not perfect

cut

p.32
 Variable Corresponding
Frequency
domains
testPt[0] DC (baseband)
testPt[1] 800 MHz
testPt[2] 2.2 GHz
testPt[3] 3 GHz
testPt[4] 3.8 GHz

Figure3 Table1

Table1 shows the variable generated by circuit envelope simulation. As we can see,

in our simulation, 5 harmonic tones are formed, and represented by an array

variable.

Figure3 shows the frequency difference between „tpc” and “tpa”, where “tpc” is the

radar transmitted signal, “tpa” is the echo signal reflected by the target model. Y

axis represent the amplitude of the signal tone, and the X axis is in frequency

domain where point “0” representing 3GHz

As the target relative speed is 15m/s, by calculation, the Doppler frequency shifted

by the moving object = 2*v*c/f = 300Hz. The simulation result perfectly matchs with

the calculation result.

p.33
Figure4

Figure4 shows the resultant signal at “test_point_A”. The zero point of it‟s X axis

representing 800MHz, which is the second harmonic frequency of the circuit

envelope simulation resulting variable.

As the result are also expected, which is shifted 300Hz to 800,000,300 Hz.

p.34
4.1.4. Experimental setup

We have some objective in this experiment:

1. Realize the CW radar to measure velocity

2. Measure the performance of CW radar

3. Measure the sunon case fan by CW radar performance

The following lists equipment to be used in this experiment:

Equipment Description

Spectrum Analyzer To measure the frequency spectrum

Signal generator To generate the carrier frequency and to

be the local oscillator.

Microstrip trainer kit: 1. Patch antenna is used to transmit

1. Patch antenna and receive signal

2. 3 port circulator 2. The circulator is used to separate the

3. Amplifier incoming signal into the 3rd port, so

that we can utilize one antenna to do

transmit and receive.

3. As the decay of signal strength is

large in during the traveling of

p.35
 signal, power amplifier is required to

amplify received signal.

Mini-Circuits RF components 1. Mixer is used to product 2 sideband

1. Mixer signal by addition and subtraction of

2. Power Splitter feeding signals.

2. Power splitter is used to separate the

RF signal into 2.

Sunon case fan To be a moving target

System build up as follow:

Figure5

p.36
Figure6

Figure5 is the system built by RF components.

Figure6 shows the representing schematic of figure5.

p.37
4.1.5. Experimental result

Figure7 Figure8

Figure9 Figure10

Figure7 shows the set up of the moving object and the antenna.

Figure8-10 are screen shots of the spectrum analyzer, which is connected to the

output of the radar system.

Since our system doesn‟t have any bandpass filter, therefore we cannot amplify the

output signal too large to avoid damage of the spectrum analyzer by the main but

unwanted main tone at 3GHz, which is formed by the leakage of mixer and circulator.

p.38
As the result, we monitor the 3GHz tone instead of 800MHz tone to check the

Doppler shift effect.

From figure10, there are 2 side tones around the central tone.

Figure11 Figure12

Figure11 shows the simulation is simulating there is not moving object in front of the

radar.

Figure 12 shows there is not side tone around the 3GHz

In conclusion, those 2 sidetones are formed by the moving object.

p.39
 Figure13 Figure14

Figure15 Figure16

Figure13-15 shows another experiment performed at other position of fan.

Figure16 shows the signal to noise ratio of two side tone signals is improved.

It is because the mainly reflection area, that‟s the fan blades is directly facing the

antenna, so that the reflection area become largest in this position.

p.40
 Figure17 Figure18

Figure19 Figure20

Figure17 shows the position of the fan and radar antenna and the result is shown in

figure19. Yellow arrows are showing the direction of moving blades.

Figure19 shows that the upper side tone amplitude is higher than the lower side tone,

this showing the echo signal reflected by moving towards radar object is stronger

than the echo signal reflected by moving outwards radar object. This matches the

position of fan, where the moving towards blade is placed closer to the radar than

the moving outward one.

p.41
Figure 18 and 20 shows the same result with opposite blade – radar position.

(v) Average Doppler shifted freq (Hz) speed (m/s) rpm

12 232.5 11.625 2235.577
11 227.5 11.375 2187.5
10 216.5 10.825 2081.731
9 200 10 1923.077
8 187.5 9.375 1802.885
7 168.5 8.425 1620.192
6 147.5 7.375 1418.269
5 117.5 5.875 1129.808
4 0 0 0
3 0 0 0
2 0 0 0
1 0 0 0

Table2

Measurement on SUNON case fan

2500

2000
Speed of fan (m/s)

1500

1000

500

0
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14
-500
Input voltage

Figure21

In table2, results in “Average Doppler shifted freq (Hz)” were measured by our CW

radar system with different input voltage of fan listed in “(v)”.

p.42
Figure21 shows that the fan will operate at about 5V input voltage. The relationship

between input voltage and the moving speed is almost linearly proportional.

4.1.6. Experiment discussion and conclusion

When the fan operating at 12V, the Doppler shifted frequency by moving blades is

( f d )c
232Hz. By calculation, the velocity of fan blade =
2 fo

Where fd is the Doppler shifted frequency; c is the speed of light; fo is the carrier

frequency. The velocity = 11.63m/s.

From the fan datasheet, we find out the rotational speed is 2350rpm, it‟s angular

velocity = 2350 * 2pi/60 = 245 rad/s, therefore, it‟s tangential velocity = 245*0.06 =

14.7 m/s. Which is larger than our measuring result, it is because the reflection area

of each blade is not the outmost part only, in the other words, the reflection area of

blade is the middle. Our angular velocity

To simply conclude this experiment, the CW radar can detect the speed of spinning

fan blades. 3GHz carrier frequency is workable to detect around 10-15 m/s moving

object. Super heterodyne receiver make the measurement possible.

p.43
4.2. FMCW radar system with sideband superheterodyne receiver

4.2.1. Simulation setup

Figure22

p.44
 Area 1

Area 2

Area 3

Figure23

Figure22 shows the block diagram of FM-CW radar system.

Figure23 shows the schematics of FM-CW radar system for simulation. Area1 is the

frequency modulator, Area2 is the local oscillator and Area 3 is the target model,

which may generate a time delayed echo signal to simulate different distance

between model and radar.

Since this simulation mainly simulate the methodology of FM-CW radar on range

detection, therefore, no filter and amplifier is added.

p.45
There are some parameter has been assumed:

1. the frequency span is 40MHz

2. The modulation period is 10e-6 second

3. The target is placed 10 cm away from the radar, so that the delay time is 2.00e-9

sec, there is about 5333Hz beat frequency.

4.2.2. Simulation Result

m2 m3
freq=2.762GHz freq=2.799GHz
fs(TRAN.no_d)=0.011 / -113.737V fs(TRAN.no_d)=0.015 / 43.999V
25
fs(TRAN.no_d), mV

20
m3
15
m2
10

0
2.5 3.0

freq, GHz

Figure24

Figure24 shows the output signal of VCO, the output is the nearly the same as our

expected. The output signal‟s frequency span = 2.799GHz- 2.762GHz = 37MHz

p.46
 m1
freq=600.0MHz
db(fs(TRAN.test_point_B))=-4.997
m1
db(fs(TRAN.test_point_B))

-50

-100

-150
599 601

freq, MHz

Figure25

Figure25 shows the signal on the pin test_point_B. However, the step of transient

simulation is too large, so that we cannot see the little bit frequency shifted of main

tone as the shifting order is around thousand to ten thousand.

4.2.3. Experimental setup

There are 2 objective to this experiment:

1. Realize the FM-CW radar

2. Measure the performance of radar

System build up as follow:

p.47
Figure26

Figure27

p.48
Figure26 is the system built by RF components.

Figure27 shows the representing schematic of figure26.

4.2.4. Experimental result

Figure28 Figure29

Figure28-29 shows the output signal from VCO, we can found out the signal is

successfully frequency modulated

Figure30 Figure31

p.49
Figure32

Figure30-32 shows the output from the mixer which fed the FM signal and the

intermediate frequency signal. However, the lower sideband is the only we needed.

Figure33

p.50
5. Cost Summary

The cost of designing a radar system can be divided into two category, hardware and

software.

For the hardware, the most costly is transmitter, as the transmitter power varies

about fourth root of the range, to double the range; the power has to be increase 16

times, and the high power transmitter cannot be built with simple circuits,

magnetron or klystron amplifier will be used instead. [1] Other components which

can be built by RF circuitry to reduce the cost. For example, quote from an

electronic products retailer “RS” [8], a PIN diode is HK$10.2 per each. One mixer

need 4 diodes, therefore the cost is about HK$50 of each mixer.

About Software, as we are student, we can use the Agilent Advanced Design System

2005 (ADS2005) in our Electronic Engineering laboratory freely, as department has

bought the license for us.

p.51
6. Discussions and Conclusions

There are some problem encountered, missing of specified band pass filter, so that

we cannot raise the transmission power, and to amplify the echo signal to prevent

any dangerous to equipment, so that the signal to noise (including useless main tones)

is low.

3 GHz carrier frequency is still quite large to detect a walking human, which is

assumed 1m/s in velocity. 1m/s will only cause 20Hz Doppler shifted frequency for a

3GHz carrier frequency RF signal.

This project has provided me a chance to plan, study and build up a whole system. It

is time consuming to study basic theory in a mature system. The next step follows

study is to determine all parameters of each block, and then do simulation.

p.52
References

[1] Merrill L Skolnik, "Introduction to radar systems"

[2] Gershon J. Wheeler, "RADAR FUNDAMENTALS"

[3] http://www.radartutorial.eu/06.antennas/an21.en.html

[4] http://mwave.ee.cuhk.edu.hk/ele4320/, Lecture note “Microwave Passive

Circuit”

[5] http://www.microsemi.com/literature/pinhandbook.pdf

[6] http://mwave.ee.cuhk.edu.hk/ele4320/, Lecture note “Noise”

[7] W.Alan Davis, Krishna K. Agarwal, “RADIO FREQUENCY CIRCUIT DESIGN”

[8] http://www.rshongkong.com

[9] http://www.nslij-genetics.org/wli/1fnoise/

[10] Advanced Design System Documentation>Circuit Envelope Simulation

p.53
Appendices – Sunon fan datasheet

p.54