Spline-Shaped Microstrip Edge-Fed Antenna for 77 GHz Automotive Radar Systems

TL;DR

This paper introduces a novel spline-shaped microstrip edge-fed antenna for 77 GHz automotive radar systems, optimized with a System-by-Design approach, demonstrating high performance and reliability through experimental validation.

Contribution

It presents a new spline-shaped antenna design optimized via a customized System-by-Design method for automotive radar applications.

Findings

Achieved suitable impedance matching and polarization purity.

Demonstrated stable beam shaping within 76-78 GHz band.

Validated design reliability with experimental tests.

Abstract

An innovative millimeter-wave (mm-wave) microstrip edge-fed antenna (EFA) for 77 GHz automotive radars is proposed. The radiator contour is modeled with a sinusoidal spline-shaped (SS) profile characterized by a reduced number of geometrical descriptors, but still able to guarantee a high flexibility in the modeling for fulfilling challenging user-defined requirements. The SS-EFA descriptors are effectively and efficiently optimized with a customized implementation of the System-by-Design (SbD) paradigm. The synthesized EFA layout, integrated within a linear arrangement of identical replicas to account for the integration into the real radar system, exhibits suitable impedance matching, isolation, polarization purity, and stability of the beam shaping/pointing within the target band [76:78][GHz]. The experimental assessment, carried out with a Compact Antenna Test Range (CATR) system on a printed circuit board (PCB)-manufactured prototype, assess the reliability of the outcomes from the full-wave (FW) simulations as well as the suitability of the synthesized SS-EFA for automotive radars.