Effects of Transmission-Signal Phase Noise on the Performance of an Optically-Connected 96 GHz Millimeter-Wave Radar System

Abstract

The fundamental receiving performance of an optically-connected 96 GHz millimeter-wave radar depends on the phase noise of the transmission signal is investigated. We experimentally evaluate this performance by generating a 96 GHz frequency-modulated continuous wave (FMCW) signal by multiplying a 4 GHz signal. The phase noise degrades by about 28 dB due to the 24-fold multiplication. Next, the performance of the radar system with the two FMCW signal sources is measured in an anechoic chamber. The results show that the effectiveness of the low-phase-noise signal generator.