Detection of weak moving targets based on 2-D range-Doppler FMCW radar Fourier processing

This paper deals with a FMCW radar measurement scheme and a 2-D range-Doppler FMCW radar Fourier processing that is especially suited to detect very weak moving targets. A 2-D Fourier transform is applied to a larger set of consecutively measured FMCW radar beat signals. By this a phase coherent evaluation of a very long measuring time and a highly sensitive target separation in range and Doppler dimension is feasible. Applications of the proposed method are for example live sign detection of trapped or buried people, intruder detection or level measurements to organic fluids. The practical application of the described method is illustrated with a 24 GHz FMCW radar sensor system. The signal evaluation was implemented on a field programmable gate array (FPGA) to facilitate real time processing. Exemplary measurement results are presented to illustrate the capability of the applied method.