The effect of phase noise on ranging uncertainty in FMCW secondary radar-based local positioning systems

In this paper, we present a closed-form expression for the lower bound of the ranging uncertainty in secondary FMCW radar based local positioning systems. This novel methodology uses a measured phase noise profile of the frequency ramp synthesizer and other readily available component and system parameters to calculate an analytical expression for a realistic estimate of the secondary radar performance. We show that the VCO phase noise is crucial for the lower performance limit of FM radar based local positioning systems. The analytical expressions and theoretical results are experimentally verified using a 24 GHz secondary radar hardware platform.