FMCW Radar for Data Acquisition on High-Density Polyethylene Guides

Current labeling techniques have several disadvantages, such as label durability on outdoor conditions, that hinder the growth of automated data acquisition systems. We present a millimeter-wave radar-based alternative that can solve some of these problems by reading prerecorded binary air gaps in a low-cost plastic guide made from high-density polyethylene. In this article, bit detection in a plastic guide is analyzed and validated with a 300-GHz radar prototype transmitting 27 GHz of bandwidth in a laboratory environment.