Assessment of Compressive Sensing 2 × 2 MIMO Antenna Design for Millimeter-Wave Radar Image Enhancement

Abstract

This paper presents a microstrip array antenna designed for a 2 × 2 Compressive Sensing Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (CS-MIMO) millimeter-wave radar operating at 37.5 GHz. The CS-MIMO linear array antenna is designed to obtain an optimal aperture by seeking a suitable random pattern for the antenna positions. Applying CS allows a considerable reduction in the number of antennas respect to a dense array based on the Nyquist criterion. In this study, we report all possible configurations of 2 × 2 CS-MIMO by placing antennas in random positions, plus their compression ratio. Finally, by selecting the proper design, we examine the experimental validation of the CS-MIMO antenna prototype by comparing measurements and simulations with a Standard MIMO (Std-MIMO) antenna prototype as a benchmark. The experimental results show that the angular resolution can be increased through a random array CS-MIMO by a factor of at least 2.9 respect to Std-MIMO while preserving the radar field of view.