Massive MIMO Radar based Burden Surface Imaging: How mm-Wave Integrated Circuits Enable Optimization of Blast Furnace Charging

In the last decade there was enormous progress in integrated mm-wave integrated circuit design, targeting primarily mobility applications like automated driving [1], [2]. It is shown in this paper how this progress, paired with advanced signal processing and the enormous increase of available processing power, enables successful implementation of completely different, yet spectacular, applications. The evolution of designs of massive multiple-input multiple-output imaging radars in combination with the associated real-time signal processing and in-line autocalibration for analyzing the burden surface in blast furnaces, the BLASTDAR system, is presented. BLASTDAR systems now operate in all five voestalpine blast furnaces for several years.