Experimental study of antenna characteristic effects on doppler radar performance

Abstract

This paper presents an experimental study to evaluate the effects of antenna radiation parameters on the detection capabilities of a 2.4 GHz Doppler radar used in non-contact vibrometer systems. Four different types of patch antennas and array configurations are implemented on both the transmitter and receiver sides of the system. Extensive experiments using a linear actuator and a metal plate are performed and several interesting and nontrivial results are reported. The optimized antenna configuration is shown to result in the highest signal quality and system performance.