Imaging Characteristics of a 24 × 24 Channel MIMO FMCW Radar based on a SiGe:C Chipset

In this paper, the imaging characteristics of a novel compact 24 × 24 channel MIMO FMCW radar operating at 120 GHz are examined. A basic overview of the 25cm × 13cm × 3.8cm radar hardware and the custom application specific integrated SiGe:C chipset is shown. The image reconstruction algorithm is presented and verified using simulated and measured data showing key performance features of 1° angular resolution and a sidelobe suppression of 20dB. Additionally the impact of different surface types on imaging performance is compared using simulated data to highlight its relevance on millimeterwave imaging of realistic scenarios. To demonstrate the imaging capabilities of the MIMO radar system in real world scenarios, a measurement of a coke pile was carried out and the resulting reconstructed image is presented.