A Liquid Crystal-Switched Passive Van Atta Array Element for Millimetre-Wave Automobile Radar Target Enhancement and Concurrent Data Modulation in Adverse Weather Conditions

Date
2017
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Abstract
Severe weather challenges drivers by degrading visibility and road conditions. Modern automotive collision avoidance systems also experience degraded performance in bad weather, which reduces the range of car-mounted sensors that detect obstacles on the road, and of communication networks that warn other cars about hazards. Radar systems are resistant to most weather but remain affected by heavy rainfall, due to regulatory constraints on frequency and power. Radar architectures can improve, but this thesis proposes to enhance the detectability of vehicles by increasing their radar cross sections with a new automotive safety device: a conformal retrodirective patch antenna array installed into car bodywork. A millimetre-wave array element with a novel liquid crystal switch is successfully simulated, fabricated, and experimentally shown to sufficiently modulate the retransmitted radar signal to piggyback data. This guarantees safe detection ranges in worst-case rain showers and replaces secondary communication systems, minimizing environmental RF pollution.
Description
Keywords
Engineering--Automotive, Engineering--Electronics and Electrical
Citation
Dratnal, A. J. (2017). A Liquid Crystal-Switched Passive Van Atta Array Element for Millimetre-Wave Automobile Radar Target Enhancement and Concurrent Data Modulation in Adverse Weather Conditions (Master's thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada). Retrieved from https://prism.ucalgary.ca. doi:10.11575/PRISM/24769