For foreign object detection on runways highly sensitive radar sensors give the opportunity to detect even very small objects, metallic and non-metallic, also under adverse weather conditions. As it is desirable for airport applications to install only small but robust installations along the traffic areas, millimeter wave radars offer the opportunity of small antenna apertures and miniaturized system hardware. A 220-GHz radar was developed, which is capable to serve this application if several of these are netted to cover the whole traffic area. Although under fortunate conditions the radar allows a classification or even an identification of the debris, the complete system design incorporates 3-D PMD-cameras for assistance in the identification process, if the environmental conditions allow for this. The latter part of the system is described in a separate paper [3].
