FMCW Radar Design
Frequency Modulated Continuous Wave (FMCW) radars are a fast expanding area in radar technology due to their stealth features, extremely high resolutions, and relatively clutter free displays. This groundbreaking resource offers engineers expert guidance in designing narrowband FMCW radars for surveillance, navigation, and missile seeking. It also provides professionals with a thorough understanding of underpinnings of this burgeoning technology. Moreover, readers find detailed coverage of the RF components that form the basis of radar construction. Featuring clear examples, the book presents critical discussions on key applications.
Why Read This Book
You will learn how to design practical narrowband FMCW radar systems end-to-end, from RF front-end hardware to the digital signal processing needed for high-resolution range and Doppler estimation. The book combines rigorous theory with engineering examples and RF design guidance so you can move directly from analysis to a working surveillance, navigation, or missile-seeking prototype.
Who Will Benefit
Radar and RF engineers, signal-processing engineers, and systems designers with some prior experience who are building or prototyping FMCW radar systems for surveillance, navigation, or tracking applications.
Level: Advanced — Prerequisites: Undergraduate-level signals and systems, basic radar and electromagnetic principles, familiarity with digital signal processing (FFT, filters), and experience with MATLAB or similar simulation tools.
Key Takeaways
- Design narrowband FMCW waveforms and understand trade-offs between sweep bandwidth, chirp rate, range resolution, and ambiguity
- Specify RF front-end architectures and choose components (mixers, LOs, amplifiers, filters, ADCs) suitable for FMCW systems
- Implement baseband DSP chains including dechirp (beat) processing, windowed FFTs, spectral analysis, and range–Doppler mapping
- Analyze performance in noise and clutter: compute SNR, resolution, range/Doppler ambiguity, and detection limits (CFAR-like concepts)
- Apply adaptive filtering and clutter-suppression techniques to improve target detection in real environments
- Validate and test designs with measurement methods, calibration procedures, and practical case studies
Topics Covered
- 1. Introduction to FMCW Radar: Principles and Applications
- 2. Time- and Frequency-Domain Signal Models for FMCW
- 3. FMCW Waveform Design: Chirps, Sweep Laws, and Ambiguity
- 4. RF Transmit/Receive Architectures for Narrowband FMCW
- 5. Mixers, Local Oscillators, LNA, PA, and Filtering Considerations
- 6. Analog-to-Digital Conversion and IF/Baseband Sampling
- 7. Dechirp/Beat Processing and Digital Downconversion
- 8. FFTs, Spectral Analysis, and Range/Doppler Processing
- 9. Resolution, Ambiguity, and Performance Metrics (SNR, BER, Pfa/Pd)
- 10. Adaptive Filtering, Clutter Suppression, and MTI Techniques
- 11. Practical Implementation: Calibration, Testing, and Measurements
- 12. Applications and Case Studies: Surveillance, Navigation, and Missile Seeking
- 13. Design Examples and Worked Problems
- Appendices: Mathematical Tools, Hardware Component Tables, Simulation Recipes
Languages, Platforms & Tools
How It Compares
Compared to Mark A. Richards' "Fundamentals of Radar Signal Processing," Jankiraman focuses more narrowly on FMCW systems and practical RF front-end design with worked implementation guidance; compared to Skolnik's "Introduction to Radar Systems," it is more hands-on for FMCW waveform and hardware design rather than broad radar theory.
