Post-Integration Antenna Characterisation For A V-Band Drone-Detection Radar

A drone detection FMCW radar operating from 57 to 64 GHz band has one transmit and two receiving fan-beam antennas. Due to the close integration of the system and enclosure, aspects related to board layout such as direct transmitter antenna to receiver antenna coupling and packaging effects reduce the antenna beamwidths and may reduce antenna efficiency. Post-integration diagnostic methods are presented to test the antenna system performance. The concept of a combined transmit-receive radiation pattern in combination with a large planar reflector is introduced and used to characterise radar fan-beam antenna patterns. The system is used as an uncalibrated network analyser to characterise the two fan-beam pairs with the influence of the packaging included.