Influence of RF Group Delay on the Performance of FMCW Automotive Radar Sensor

In this paper, we derive intermediate frequency (IF) level analytical formulation of radio frequency (RF) group delay for automotive frequency-modulated continuous-wave (FMCW) radar waveform under quasi-static approximation. To the best of our knowledge, this paper is the first to develop and simulate an IF-level analytical formulation of RF group delay, including random and deterministic variation for the FMCW radar waveform. Theoretical limitation for the tolerable RF group delay can be derived based on the proposed model. We demonstrated the impact of RF group delay on the FMCW radar sensor's range spectrum in dynamic virtual traffic scenarios. The proposed model is integrated into a virtual FMCW radar sensor model implemented as a functional mock-up unit (FMU) using the standardized interfaces functional mock-up interface (FMI) 2.0 and the open simulation interface (OSI) 3.0.0. A virtual test scenario is implemented in an industry-standard simulation tool, CarMaker, to demonstrate the effect.