CAREER: Spectrally-Encoded Ultrafast Microwave Panoramic Camera

职业：光谱编码超快微波全景相机

• 批准号: 1552958
• 负责人: Chung-Tse Wu
• 金额: $ 50万
• 依托单位: Wayne State University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2016
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2016-01-01 至 2018-03-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1552958&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: CAREER; Spectrally; Encoded; Ultrafast; Microwave

Current microwave radar systems using conventional beam scanning techniques cannot simultaneously achieve a panoramic field of view (FOV) and high scanning speed. This is due to intrinsic hardware latencies from mechanical rotors or electronic phase shifters, or excessive computation time from digital signal processing. These limitations can fundamentally be overcome by transforming imaging concepts from optics into microwaves, enabling a microwave panoramic camera (MPC). The knowledge and understanding of such integration will lead to a novel category of radars and imaging sensors that can be used for a wide range of sensing applications. The proposed MPC will be applied, in particular, to automotive radar to provide driver assistance, making driving safer and more convenient. The fast sensing speed and panoramic FOV enabled by MPC-based radars will provide early warning of potential collisions to drivers. Furthermore, the ultrafast frame rate of MPCs will allow differentiation of objects by detecting their Doppler signatures. With a panoramic FOV, MPCs can also be used in autonomous driving systems requiring constant monitoring of road situations. The educational component of the proposed work will integrate advanced automotive technologies into undergraduate education by engaging community college students in the Metro Detroit area. It will be conducted through the University Bound Program, a State of Michigan King-Chavez-Parks (KCP) Initiative. Community college students, especially those from underrepresented groups, will be encouraged to participate in research activities in antenna and microwave engineering essential for today's automotive radar imaging sensors and telematics. The objective of this research is to transform spectrally encoded confocal microscopy, a fiber-based optical imaging method for high-speed scanning, into the microwave and millimeter-wave regime. This integration will enable the proposed microwave panoramic camera with ultrafast scanning speed and a panoramic field of view. The technical approach relies on the creation of transmission-line based microwave metamaterials, also known as composite right/left-handed transmission lines. By tailoring microwave metamaterials to form a frequency scanned array, a two-dimensional frequency-to-space mapping mechanism can be realized. Utilizing the two-dimensional angular mapping scheme along with the range information obtained from the reflected signal will result in an image of the scene in three dimensions. This research will demonstrate the capability to capture a three-dimensional microwave image with 180-degree FOV in both azimuth and elevation, with a frame-rate speed of 1 MHz. The fast frame refresh rate will allow any Doppler and micro-Doppler effects of moving objects to be captured and exploited for target recognition and identification. Furthermore, by engineering the dispersion characteristics of microwave metamaterials, the proposed MPC can be designed to work in multiple bands, making it feasible to perform dual-band operations for radar systems, such as 24 GHz and 77 GHz automotive radar sensors.

使用常规光束扫描技术的当前微波雷达系统不能同时达到全景视野（FOV）和高扫描速度。这是由于机械转子或电子相移的固有硬件潜伏期，或数字信号处理的过度计算时间。 通过将影像学概念从光学器件转换为微波，从而使微波全景相机（MPC）将这些局限性从根本上可以克服。对这种整合的知识和理解将导致新型的雷达和成像传感器类别，这些传感器可用于广泛的传感应用。提议的MPC尤其将应用于汽车雷达以提供驾驶员帮助，从而使驾驶更安全，更方便。 基于MPC的雷达启用的快速传感速度和全景FOV将为驾驶员提供潜在碰撞的预警。此外，MPC的超快帧速率将通过检测其多普勒签名来区分对象。 使用全景FOV，MPC也可以用于自动驾驶系统中，需要持续监测道路情况。 拟议工作的教育部分将通过与底特律大都会地区的社区大学生互动，将先进的汽车技术整合到本科教育中。 它将通过Michigan King-Chavez-Parks（KCP）倡议的大学Bound Bound计划进行。 社区大学的学生，特别是来自代表性不足的团体的学生，将鼓励参加天线和微波工程研究活动，对于当今的汽车雷达成像传感器和远程信息处理至关重要。这项研究的目的是将基于高速扫描的基于纤维的光学成像方法转化为微波和毫米波状态。这种集成将使提出的微波全景相机具有超快速扫描速度和全景视野。技术方法依赖于基于传输线的微波超材料的创建，也称为右/左手传输线。通过调整微波材料形成频率扫描阵列，可以实现二维频到空间映射机构。 利用二维角映射方案以及从反射信号获得的范围信息将导致场景的图像在三个维度上。 这项研究将证明在方位角和高程中捕获具有180度FOV的三维微波图像的能力，帧速率速度为1 MHz。 快速帧刷新速率将允许捕获和利用移动对象的任何多普勒和微二倍体效应，以进行目标识别和识别。此外，通过设计微波超材料的分散特性，所提出的MPC可以设计用于多个频段，使得对雷达系统（例如24 GHz和77 GHz自动动力雷达传感器）进行双波段操作是可行的。