Proceedings of the 9th European Radar Conference

Switching Scheme for a FMCW-MIMO Radar on a

Moving Platform
Johanna Guetlein, Sebastian Bertl, Andreas Kirschner, Juergen Detlefsen
Technische Universitaet Muenchen
Fachgebiet Hochfrequente Felder und Schaltungen
Arcisstr. 21, 80333 Muenchen, GERMANY
Email: j.guetlein@tum.de

AbstractFor MIMO radar systems orthogonal waveforms f

are required to distinguish between the different transmitted
signals at the different receivers. A hardware cost efficient way
is the use of time-multiplexing, where the transmitters are active Tx1 Tx2 Tx3 Tx4
sequentially after each other. In the presence of platform or target
movement, the sampling theorem in the spatial domain (along
track) might not be fulfilled anymore which causes problems t
in the azimuth focusing. In this paper an interlaced switching t
scheme for a FMCW MIMO radar is proposed to overcome
this issue. To verify the proposed method measurements were Fig. 1: Time-varying frequency; Each slope for an individual
performed. transmitter Tx in sequence

I. I NTRODUCTION II. S YSTEM M ODEL

A. FMCW signal model

Multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) radar systems gen-
erally consist of several transmitters and receivers. In the
coherent MIMO case it is possible to synthesize an array
consisting of virtual elements [1]. Therefore a virtual array
with N M elements can be generated from a real setup of
N transmitting antennas and M receiving antennas.
An essential task for the coherent processing is to separate the
transmitted signals at the various receivers. A very easy and
hardware cost efficient way is time-domain multiplexing [2]. A
switch can be used to feed the signal to the individual transmit
antennas one after another in a known sequence, where as the
receiving channels receive simultaneously.
In the case of a relative movement between platform and target
an additional phase term in the received signals occurs and has
to be taken into account. Due to the movement the relations
between the virtual elements is varying during a measurement
cycle. If the sampling theorem in along track direction is not
fulfilled due to the motion, azimuth processing isnt possible
anymore.
To avoid this an alternative switching scheme is proposed for
a FMCW MIMO system. Here the transmitters are not sending
their complete FMCW sweep in sequence, but the individual
slopes are separated into parts, that are transmitted in sections.
For this switching scheme it is possible to focus in the azimuth
direction even for high velocities.
Note that in this work all information is gained from a sin-
gle measurement cycle. Additional information from various
cycles are not taken into account.
In the implemented radar system a linear frequency modu-
lated continuous wave (FMCW) signal is used. For an up-chirp
the time-varying frequency is given by:
B
f (t) = f0 + t (1)
Ts
where t = 0, t, 2t, . . . , Ts are the discrete time samples, Ts
is the duration of a single frequency sweep, f0 is the starting
frequency and B is the bandwidth of the sweep.
In general n [1; N ] is the number of the transmitting
antennas and m [1; M ] is the number of the receiving
antennas. The received time-delayed signal is down-converted
with the transmit signal. In a static scenario the complex signal
is given by [3]
K
Ak ej2(f (t) c rnkm )
1
X
sn,m (t) = (2)
k=1
for B f0 . Here the signal is transmitted by the nth trans-
mitter Txn , reflected by K targets and received by the mth
receiver Rxm . Each scatterer is represented by and individual
amplitude Ak . rnkm is the length of the path from Txn to the
object k and back to Rxm .
In Fig. 1 the frequency is shown over time. Four slopes
are depicted, each according to an individual transmitter. For
simplicity only a very small number of time samples are
displayed for each slope, in practice t Ts .

978-2-87487-029-3 2012 EuMA 91 31 Oct - 2 Nov 2012, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

B. Virtual array concept
The path length rnkm can be written as rnkm = |rk
rn | + |rm rk |. Where rn , rm and rk are the position of the
transmitter Txn , the receiver Rxm and the scatterer k respec-
tively. This can be approximated by rnkm 2|rk rnm |, if the
distance between transmitter and receiver is small compared to
the distance to the observed objects [4]. Here rnm is the center
of gravity between Txn and Rxm . Therefore its possible to
represent each pair of Txn and Rxm by a virtual element at
the position rnm .
The path length from each virtual element to the object can
be divided into two parts. The first one is due to the distance
between the observed object and the reference point of the
array. The second part is due to the position of the virtual
element relative to the reference point. For a linear array the
total path length can be written as
rnkm = 2rk0 + 2 sin k dnm
where dnm is the distance of the virtual antenna element
(corresponding to the transmitter receiver pair Txn Rxm ) to
the reference point and rk0 is the distance between the target
k and the reference point of the array.
If (1) and (3) are applied to (2) the received signal can be
rewritten.
K
Ak ej2((f0 + Ts t)( c rk0 + c dnm sin k ))
X B 2 2
sn,m (t) =
k=1
It is possible to gain the range and azimuth information of each
object from these signals. In a first step a Fourier transforma-
tion is performed on each of the different signals to obtain
the information in range direction, afterwards the conventional
beamformer is used to obtain the azimuth information. In
the conventional beamformer the signals are multiplied by a
steering vector to compensate for the delay along the array
and are added afterwards.
C. Platform motion
In the presence of motion (platform or target) additional
terms have to be taken into account for the received and down-
converted signal.
The new signal for a moving platform is given by:
K
X spatial domain has to be fulfilled.
sn,m (t) = Ak ej2f (t)(r +m,n ) ej2(D t+v (n1)) (5)
k=1
where r = 2rk0 /c and m,n = 2dn,m sin k /c.
The Doppler shift induced by the motion is given by
D = 2vcrk f0 .
On the other hand an additional phase term v = 2vcrk f0 Ts
due to the sequential transmitter activation has to be taken
into account. The relation of the different virtual elements to
the reference point of the array are changing in the presence
of motion [2]. This is also influenced by the used sequential
switching scheme. In the following it is assumed, that the
transmitters are active in the order Tx1 , Tx2 , . . . , Txn .
The radial displacement due to the Doppler shift is
x
vx Ts
y
Fig. 2: Positions of the virtual elements of an array with
4 transmitters and 4 receivers if the platform is moving at
constant speed in x-direction. The active elements are marked
with .
r = f0 vrk TBs for f0 B. This term can be compensated
if the radial velocity vrk = cos k vx + sin k vy is known.
In Fig. 2 an example of a moving platform is displayed. The
(3) locations of 16 different virtual array elements are shown. This
array is synthesized by four real Tx elements and four Rx
elements. In the static case where the platform is not moving
the location of the virtual elements would correspond to an
uniform linear array denoted by the circles in the first line of
the picture (x = 0).
If the platform is moving the location of the elements, that
are not belonging to the first active transmitter, have changed
until the appropriate transmit elements are active. In the figure
(4) the location of the virtual elements are shown at the beginning
of the FMCW slopes. The platform is moving in x-direction.
The active elements are marked with .
This additional spatial displacement is taken into account in
the receiving signal (5) by the last term in the exponent
v (n 1).
In order to compensate these terms redundant array elements
are used in [2] [5]. Two redundant elements receive the
same signal in the static case. In the presence of motion
the phase of the two signals differs only by the previous
described additional phase term. Therefore the phase term
can be compensated by using the phase difference of two
redundant measurements.
Without redundant elements the crucial part is the azimuth
processing. If the phase term is to be compensated from a
previously estimated velocity vrk the sampling theorem in the
For frequencies in the GHz range and slopes with a duration
in the millisecond range this would only be the case for very
low velocities.
D. Alternative switching scheme
A possibility to overcome this issue is to divide the FMCW
ramps into smaller parts. The first part of the sweep is
transmitted by all transmitters in sequence afterwards the next
part is transmitted by all elements and so on. The shorter
the sub-ramps are the faster velocities can be compensated.
Therefore the limit for the length of the sub-ramps is one
samplepoint.
This case, which is also realized in the system that is used
92
 f 0
N t
Fig. 3: Interlaced switching scheme for N = 4 different
transmitters
for the measurement, is visualized in Fig 3. Each frequency
samplepoint is transmitted by all Txn antennas before the next
frequency point is transmitted.
The total time of one measurement cycle remains N Ts .
The time between the different frequency points for the
individual transmitters becomes N t which influences the
induced doppler shift. The received signal with this alternative
switching scheme is:
K 2N vrk
j2 f0 t+
X
sn,m (t) = ej2f (t)(r +m,n ) e c c
k=1
(6)
The radial displacement due to the Doppler frequency is
now r = f0 N vrk TBs , which is N times the displacement
compared to the usage of the sequential activation of the
transmitters. This term can be compensated for if the radial
velocity is known. Note that this displacement is equal for all
channels and therefore it has no effect on azimuth processing.
The additional phase term due to the displacement of the array
elements is very small. It can be compensated for as long
as vr t < /4. For the speeds that are considered for this
system, the phase term can be even neglected.
Therefore it is possible to achieve proper azimuth focusing
even in the presence of a relative motion between platform
and object.
Note that for the proposed interlaced switching scheme the
following condition has to be fullfilled: The time between two
sample points t has to be larger than the time needed to
switch between two transmit channels plus the maximum delay
time max = 2rmax /c.
III. M EASUREMENTS
The proposed interlaced switching scheme, with a sub-
sweep length of a single sample point is now verified and com-
pared with the sequential switching by some measurements.
A MIMO radar system with four transmitting and four receiv-
ing antennas is used. The location of the antennas lead to a
uniform linear array with 16 different virtual elements [6] [7].
The frequency ramp is tuned from 75 GHz to 78 GHz, which
corresponds to a bandwidth of 3 GHz. The duration of one
FMCW slope is 6 ms. t = 2 s or 3000 samples are recorded
for each ramp. The resolution in range is 5 cm and 2 in
azimuth direction, the field of view is about 35 .
14
5
12
10
10
15
8
x (m)
t 20
6
25
4
2 30
0 35
4 2 0
y (m)
2 4
(a) Photo (b) Measurement result
Fig. 4: Measurement of a static scenario with a nonmoving
platform
For the first experiments the radar is mounted on a moveable
2(n1)vrk

table and is shifted by hand to realize a moving platform.
f0 t
The scenario is assumed to be stationary and the platform
is moving in the direction of = 0 . Therefore the motion
has only a x-component and the radial velocity in different
directions can be calculated by vr = vx cos .
The velocity of the platform is estimated by a continuous
wave (CW) Doppler measurement, which is performed before
the FMCW measurement. A single transmitter radiates a CW-
signal with the frequency f0 and a duration of 5 ms and all four
receivers record the Doppler signal. Therefore it is possible to
focus the measurement to the direction of = 0 .
A trihedral is placed in the corridor in which the measurements
are performed, the scene is shown in Fig. 4a. The measurement
result for a nonmoving platform is displayed in Fig. 4b. The
results are essentially the same for both switching schemes.
For clarity the measurements that are done with a moving
platform are only depicted around the location of the trihedral.
First the results of the measurements with sequential switching
are considered.
The platform was moved towards the trihedral with a speed
of 1 m/s.
Note that the measurement for Fig. 4b are performed at
the starting point of the system movement. Since a specific
distance is needed to accelerate the platform to the desired
velocity the trihedral is located at a distance of about 2.5 m
in the following pictures, where it is depicted at a distance of
about 4 m in Fig. 4b.
In Fig. 5 the measurement is shown when no motion compen-
sation is performed. In Fig. 6 the result is shown when the
two last terms in the exponent of (5) are compensated by the
velocity, that is estimated from the CW-measurement.
Since the platform is moving towards the target the calculated
range to the target without motion compensation is smaller
than the true range. This fact can be easily compensated for
as it can be seen from the figures 5 and 6.
93
 0 0

1 1
5 5

0.5 0.5
10 10
y (m)

y (m)
0 0
15 15
0.5 0.5

20 20
1 1

25 25
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5
x (m) x (m)

Fig. 5: Sequential switching for a moving platform without Fig. 7: Interlaced switching scheme for a moving platform
motion compensation without motion compensation

0 0

1 1
5 5

0.5 0.5
10 10

y (m)
y (m)

0 0

15 15
0.5 0.5

20 20
1 1

25 25
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5
x (m) x (m)

Fig. 6: Sequential switching for a moving platform with Fig. 8: Interlaced switching scheme for a moving platform
motion compensation with motion compensation

Furthermore it can be noted that a proper azimuth focusing IV. C ONCLUSION

isnt possible even with compensation. The real target position
is around y = 0. In the uncompensated case the highest peak
is located at a wrong angle and there are also high sidelobes
in other directions. If the motion is compensated it is possible
to distinguish a target at the right position, but there are still
peaks under wrong angles, too. That is because the sampling
theorem in along track direction is not fulfilled for the used
motion.
In the performed measurement the used velocity is relatively
small. For larger velocities the azimuth focusing will become
even worse.
Now the same measurement is performed with the proposed
interlaced switching scheme. The platform is again moved
with a velocity of 1 m/s in x-direction.
Fig. 7 and Fig. 8 show the results of the measurement without
and with motion compensation respectively.
It can be seen that the azimuth focusing is working very well
without any motion compensation. That is because the last
term in the exponent of (6), which would affect the azimuth
performance, is as told before very small and can therefore be
neglected.
So only the target position shifting due to the Doppler fre-
quency, which corresponds to the third term in the exponent
of (6), has to be compensated. That is done to generate Fig. 8.
It is noticeable that the Doppler shifting for this switching
scheme is N -times larger than the one of the sequential
switching scheme as it was told before. In the given case it is
therefore four times larger since there were four transmitters
used.
An interlaced switching scheme for FMCW MIMO radar
systems was proposed to overcome the problems in the az-
imuth focusing for sequential switching if motion is taken
into account. The method was tested with an MIMO radar
system consisting of four receivers and four transmitters. The
results of measurements for the sequential and the interlaced
switching scheme were compared in the case of a moving
platform. It has been shown that the proposed scheme is
superior in terms of azimuth processing.
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