Impacts on Automotive MIMO RADAR Performance due to Permittivity Variation of Bumper Material: Insights through Bi-directional Loss and Antenna Array Ambiguity Function

Abstract

In this paper, the effect of car bumper permittivity variation on automotive MIMO RADAR antenna array is critically examined using metrics like bi-directional loss model and antenna array ambiguity function. First, a MIMO RADAR with two transmit and four receive antennas is designed and placed behind a simplified curved bumper CAD model. Next, the BLM as well as the AAAF for the antenna-bumper system is computed using the virtual array pattern approach. The proposed analysis provides quantitative insights into the effects on MIMO RADAR performance metrics like field-of-view, angular resolution and ambiguity in direction-of-arrival estimation, caused by real-life antenna-bumper interactions.