Ranging for stepped-FM coded radar

The stepped-FM coded radar realizes a radar profile with excellent freedom from radar mutual interference and high resolution by using the inverse dis crete Fourier transform (IDFT) of a part of the broadband transmitted signa l and the narrow-band baseband signal obtained by homodyne detection. Howev er, if the automotive radar frequency is increased beyond 60 GHz, a large m easurement error occurs even for targets with small relative speed. The dis tance information can be detected by an algebraic method similar to that us ed for FM-CW radar. However, if the burst length of IDFT is increased, rang ing error occurs due to change of the relative distance between the two rad ar profiles. In this paper, the method used in FM-CW radar is discussed. Fu rther, a ranging method is proposed based on one radar profile and its char acteristics are compared with those of the FM-CW radar system. (C) 1999 Scr ipta Technica.