Millimeter Wave Radar Object Detection Through Frequency Selective Surfaces

• Main Author: Trevithick, Jacob D
• Format: Others
• Published: DigitalCommons@CalPoly 2019
• Subjects: Frequency Selective Surfaces; mmWave Radar
• Online Access: https://digitalcommons.calpoly.edu/theses/2077; https://digitalcommons.calpoly.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3510&context=theses

Millimeter wave (mmWave) radar systems are a leading technology in autonomous vehicle object sensing. The radar’s ability to detect surrounding objects is critical to its performance. One method of increasing object detection performance is to enhance object visibility. Frequency selective reflectors can increase object visibility. This work examines the performance of a mmWave 77 GHz radar system developed by Texas Instruments in conjunction with frequency selective surfaces. Two bandpass frequency selective surfaces are designed and fabricated using a loaded cross aperture configuration to analyze their application to object detection. The chosen design frequencies are 8 GHz and 79 GHz. The frequency selective surfaces are designed and simulated in 3-D electromagnetic simulation software, High Frequency Structure Simulator (HFSS). The frequency selective surfaces are fabricated on 127μm thick FR4 dielectric. The 8 GHz frequency selective surface demonstrates bandpass center frequency at 8.12 GHz. The 8 GHz and 79 GHz frequency selective surface reflection characteristics are compared to a copper sheets with the same physical cross section as each respective design. Although different testing methodology is used for each design, both frequency selective surfaces demonstrate bandpass characteristics at their respective design frequencies.