Electric-field visualization technique for evaluating radiation from automotive millimeter-wave radar

Pushing accuracy and reliability of radar systems to higher levels is a requirement to realize autonomous driving. To maximize its performance, the millimeter-wave radar has to be designed in consideration of its surroundings such as emblems, bumpers and so on, because the electric-field distortion will degrade the performance. We propose electro-optic (EO) measurement system to visualize amplitude and phase distribution of millimeter waves, aiming at the evaluation of the disturbance of car components with the radar module equipped inside a vehicle. Visualization of 76-GHz millimeter waves passing through plastic plates is presented to demonstrate our system's capability of diagnosing a local cause of the field disturbance.