A Prototype for Wideband Forward-looking Imaging Radar in W-band

Due to the aperture limitation, using wideband signals to improve the performance of forward-looking imaging radar is a very valuable topic. In order to verify that bandwidth can improve the performance of forward-looking imaging, a W-band wideband forward-looking imaging radar prototype is proposed in this paper. It operates at 92 GHz - 96 GHz and provides a three-dimensional image on the illuminated scenes. The prototype uses frequency modulated continuous wave signals to obtain range information and consists of a transmitting antenna and a T-shaped receiving array. Two two-dimensional images are obtained by T-shaped receiving array echoes and are fused with range information to obtain a three-dimensional image of the scene of interest. The prototype mainly consists of a W-band transceiver component, a data acquisition device, and a host computer. Such wideband prototypes possess high range resolution, enables successful separation of closely located targets, and verifies the benefits of wideband signals on improving the performance of forward-looking imaging radar.