Numerical Estimation Based on Ray Tracing for Automotive Radar Beam Through Curved Dielectric Slab

An efficient method for analyzing the effects of vehicle radar covers, which are mostly curved dielectric slab, is proposed. The method is based on geometrical optics (GO) and equivalent dipole model. The equivalent dipole model represents the radiated field from the apertures of physical radiators, which are mostly patches or open stubs. The method is validated through measurement. In the measurement, an array of patch antennas operating at 77 GHz was replaced with an array of equivalent dipoles. The geometry of the radar cover was represented by the non-uniform rational B-spline. Then, transmitted field through the vehicle radar cover was computed based on GO. The numerically estimated fields were shown to agree well with the measured results, which validates the proposed method.