An FPGA controlled digital beamforming radar sensor with three-dimensional imaging capability

In this paper a 24 GHz frequency modulated continuous wave (FMCW) digital beamforming radar system with eight transmitter and eight receiver channels, controlled by a field programmable gate array (FPGA) is presented. With an orthogonal arrangement of the transmit and receive antenna arrays, the angular information in azimuth and elevation can be obtained by digital beamforming on transmit and receive. By means of the captured range, azimuth and elevation information, a scenario can be imaged three-dimensionally. The hardware design and the implemented FPGA configuration allows simultaneous data read-out and synchronous system control. Fast data transfer and communication between FPGA and PC is realized via Ethernet.