An 120 GHz 8 x 8 FMCW MIMO Radar System with 90° Biaxial FOV for Autonomous Navigation of UAVs in 3-D Space

This paper adresses the need for drones and UAVs to sense their environment for autonomous operation. Therefore, it presents a scalable 120 GHz 8 × 8 MIMO radar system with 10 GHz bandwidth. It utilizes a specialized SiGe chipset connected to PCB patch antennas based on RT/duroid 5880 substrate. In measurements, the system demonstrates a vertical, as well as horizontal FOV over 90° and a detection range beyond 80 m in SISO measurements. Thus, an UAV equipped with four MIMO systems can fully capture its environment in a very large radius to enable autonomous navigation in 3-D space.