Granted Patent B2

US 12,736,654 · App. 18/569,505 · Granted Sep 15, 2026

Inventors: Weite Zhang (Malden, MA); Jose Angel Martinez-Lorenzo (Wellesley, MA)

Assignee: Northeastern University

G01S13/48G01S13/89H04B1/0003H04B7/0413

Abstract

Claims (59)

1 . A multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) radar system, comprising:

two or more software-defined millimeter-wave (SDMMW) nodes;

a host processing system electrically coupled to the two or more SDMMW nodes;

a MIMO aperture array coupled to the two or more SDMMW nodes;

the MIMO radar system forming a MIMO transmit (TX) channel and a MIMO receive (RX) channel for each of the two or more SDMMW nodes.

2 . The MIMO radar system of claim 1 , further comprising:

a millimeter wave (MMW) frequency-modulated continuous wave (FMCW) oscillator source configured to generate a MMW FMCW signal; and

for each of the two or more SDMMW nodes:

an upconverter assembly configured to receive a transmit (TX) intermediate frequency (IF) signal from the SDMMW node, convert the TX IF signal to a TX millimeter wave (MMW) signal using the MMW FMCW signal, and provide the TX MMW signal to the MIMO array;

a downconverter assembly configured to receive a receive (RX) MMW signal from the MIMO array, convert the RX MMW signal to an RX IF signal using the MMW FMCW signal, and provide the RX IF signal to the SDMMW node.

3 . The MIMO radar system of claim 2 , wherein the MMW FMCW oscillator source coherently distributes the MMW FMCW signal to each of the two or more SDMMW nodes.

4 . The MIMO radar system of claim 2 , wherein the MMW FMCW oscillator source sweeps the MMW FMCW signal across a range of frequencies.

5 . The MIMO radar system of claim 4 , wherein the range of frequencies is continuous.

6 . The MIMO radar system of claim 4 , wherein the range of frequencies comprises discrete steps.

7 . The MIMO radar system of claim 1 , wherein each of the two or more SDMMW nodes implements an orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) waveform.

8 . The MIMO radar system of claim 1 , wherein each of the two or more SDMMW nodes implements space-time coding.

9 . The MIMO radar system of claim 1 , wherein each of the two or more SDMMW nodes implements transmission and reception digital beamforming.

10 . The MIMO radar system of claim 1 , wherein the host processing system comprises:

a processor; and

a memory with computer code instructions stored thereon, the memory operatively coupled to the processor such that, when executed by the processor, the computer code instructions cause the host processing system to:

modulate/demodulate one or more digital baseband waveforms in a transmission/reception mode; and

perform imaging reconstruction of information received through a receive channel to visualize targets in 3D.

11 . The MIMO radar system of claim 1 , wherein the two or more software-defined millimeter-wave (SDMMW) nodes are configured to operate in a transmission mode and a receive mode.

12 . The MIMO radar system of claim 1 , further comprising a compressive reflector antenna (CRA) constructed and arranged to

(i) reflect a transmit MMW signal, radiated by the MIMO array, towards a target, and

(ii) reflect a receive MMW signal, radiated by the target, towards the MIMO array.

13 . The MIMO radar system of claim 12 , further comprising at least one additional CRA constructed and arranged to reflect the transmit MMW signal and to reflect the receive MMW signal.

14 . The MIMO radar system of claim 1 , further comprising a clock distributer module that (i) distributes a frequency reference to the two or more SDMMW nodes, the MMW FMCW oscillator source, and the host processor, and (ii) distributes a timing reference to the two or more SDMMW nodes, the MMW FMCW oscillator source, and the host processor.

15 . The MIMO radar system of claim 14 , wherein the timing source (i) triggers the MMW FMCW oscillator source to sweep the MMW FMCW signal across a range of frequencies, and (ii) triggers the two or more SDMMW nodes to begin data streaming in all transmit (TX) and receive (RX) channels.

16 . The MIMO radar system of claim 15 , wherein the data streaming comprises, at each of a set of MMW FMCW signal frequencies across the range of frequencies, a transmission of orthogonal binary phase coding (BPC) on the orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) symbol sequences.

17 . The MIMO radar system of claim 1 , wherein the MIMO radar system is calibrated by a measurement of, and a compensation of, phase and magnitude errors in each of the MIMO TX channels and MIMO RX channels.

18 . The MIMO radar system of claim 17 , wherein measurement of and a compensation of phase and magnitude errors is performed using a calibrated measurement vector

g

~

=

(

g

-

g

BG

)

·

(

g

C

-

SIM

g

C

-

EXP

-

g

BG

)

,

where g BG is a background measurement absent any object in front of the radar system, g C-EXP is a measured response at a far-field of the MIMO array, g C-SIM is a simulated response of the radar system, and g is any raw measurement vector before calibration.

19 . The MIMO radar system of claim 1 , wherein each of the two or more SDMMW nodes uses coding on an orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) waveform, with distinct coding applied to each TX path, to distinguish data returning on each RX path.

20 . The MIMO radar system of claim 19 , wherein the coding is space-time coding (STC).

Assignments (1)

Continuity (2)

References Cited (23)