Design and Analysis of a 25 GHz Frequency Modulated Continuous Wave Radar for Foreign Object Debris Detection

Abstract

Over the past few years, aviation safety has become a vital area of interest. Foreign Object Debris (FOD) present on airport runways is a huge risk to flights. It can result in grave damage to the air vehicle during crucial operations like takeoff and landing. A high-resolution sensor with ultra high accuracy is needed to detect and locate these small size unwanted articles. Millimeter wave Frequency Modulated Continuous Wave (FMCW) radars that operate at low peak power are specially designed to achieve high range resolution. The proposed design tests the evaluation of such a FMCW radar system operating in K band for single and multiple targets. The proposed radar has a low transmit power of 0.1 W and is able to find tiny alien elements of 0.005 m2 Radar Cross Section (RCS) with accuracy of less than 1 m in 500 m range.