A C-Band Fully Polarimetric Automotive Synthetic Aperture Radar

TL;DR

This paper introduces a low frequency 5.9 GHz fully polarimetric SAR for automotive applications, leveraging synthetic aperture techniques to improve angular resolution and enable landmark inference in urban environments.

Contribution

It presents a novel low frequency polarimetric SAR system for automotive use, combining V2X communication bands with synthetic aperture techniques for enhanced urban scene analysis.

Findings

Successful imaging of urban scenes with polarimetric SAR

Demonstration of landmark inference capabilities

Potential for spectrum reuse in joint radar-communications

Abstract

Due to the rapid increase in 76 GHz automotive spectrum use in recent years, wireless interference is becoming a legitimate area of concern. However, the recent rise in interest of automated vehicles (AVs) has also spurred new growth and adoption of low frequency vehicle-to-everything (V2X) communications in and around the 5.8 GHz unlicensed bands, opening the possibility for communications spectrum reuse in the form of joint radar-communications (JRC). In this work, we present a low frequency 5.9 GHz side-looking polarimetric synthetic aperture radar (SAR) for automotive use, utilizing a ranging waveform in a common low frequency V2X communications band. A synthetic aperture technique is employed to address the angular resolution concerns commonly associated with radars at lower frequencies. Three side-looking fully polarimetric SAR images in various urban scenes are presented and discussed to highlight the unique opportunities for landmark inference afforded through measurement of co- and cross-polarized scattering.