mm-Wave RadarOptics Designer (free)

Modern mm-wave radar chips (e.g. the ACCONEER "A121", which is a true LowCost solution with really incredible features ( https://acconeer.com ) often feature a relatively wide beamwidth of 60 to 90 degrees. However, for point or distance measurements, a focused beam is much more precise. At frequencies around 60 GHz, the wavelength is only about 5 mm – large enough to use dielectric lenses similar to classical optics, while still being much easier to manufacture than optical precision lenses.

The simulation illustrates with with real world produceable data how radar beams propagate through different media and so helps to design the radar optics. It considers only the main beam deflection and does not account for sidelobes or multipath effects. For designing lens geometries, this simplified approach is often sufficient in practice.

ABS can be easily processed using low cost 3D printing (SLA or FDM) and typically has a relative permittivity of about er=3 at 60 GHz. Combined with a slightly hyperbolic profile (hyperK ~ -2.7), the simulation delivers good results for the radar sensor included in this project. Other materials (e.g., PETG, PTFE) can be incorporated by using their respective permittivities.

The simulation was written in HTML/JS and is completely free.
Collaborators are welcome!

https://github.com/joembedded/radaroptics

The template was created for the low-cost sensor “OSX Radar Distance 60 GHz Type 470.” (aka 'Radarli'). Additional documentation and PDFs are available at the following link:

Further Development (*todo*)

Good luck designing your own radar optics!