A Guide to Reduce the Phase Noise Effect
in FMCW Radars
Can BAKTIR, Engin SOBACI & Ahmet DÖNMEZ
Radar Systems Engineering Department
ASELSAN A.Ş.,
Mehmet Akif ERSOY Mah. 16. Cad. No:16 Yenimahalle / Ankara, TURKEY
Abstract –One of the most important design issues in FMCW
Radars is the detection performance deterioration because of the
transmitter phase noise leaked into the receiver. The signals
coupled to the receiver path have phase noises uncorrelated with
the reference oscillator and the products of these signals generate
a corruption in the thermal noise level. There are some internal
and external sources increasing the influence of the phase noise.
This paper investigates these sources, such as coupling between
transmit and receive paths through the radar components, effects
of targets having large RCS and surfaces of the radar platform in
the radar operation zone generating unwanted echoes and
proposes methods like RPC, DLC, windowing and video
normalization to reduce the effect of this problem. Experimental
results are also presented in this paper.
Index Terms – FMCW Radar, Phase Noise, Phase Noise
Correlation, Reflected Power Canceller, Delay Line Canceller
I. INTRODUCTION
Phase noise is the frequency domain representation of the
fluctuations in the phase of a signal caused by time domain
instabilities. In FMCW Radars, these uncorrelated random
phase fluctuations in the oscillator and the coupling path
increase the thermal noise floor. This augmentation causes
deterioration in the detection performance because of the
diminution in the target SNR.
This paper investigates both internal and external sources
of phase noise and proposes methods to eliminate them. In
both cases, the coupling from the transmitter to the receiver
path is found to be the main problem. The coupling effects can
be summarized as below:
Main factors increasing the effect of phase noise which are
originated inside of the radar can be listed as given below:
- For an FMCW Radar using single antenna,
o Leakage through the circulator
o Antenna return loss
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- For an FMCW Radar using separate transmit and
receive antennas
o Coupling between the antennas
o Coupling in the rotary joint unit
There are also other factors increasing the phase noise
effect coming outside of the radar. These factors can be listed
as given below:
- Reflections from the surfaces of the radar platforms
within the radar operation zone.
- Reflections from the very close targets with large RCS
These factors and preventive design measures to minimize
these effects are explained in detail in the following sections.
II. PHASE NOISE CORRELATION FACTOR
Using the same source for transmission and mixing in the
receiver reduces the ill effects of the phase noise as the noise
in the transmitted signal is correlated with the one in the
received signal. The correlation between transmitted and
received signals are defined by the phase noise correlation
factor which depends on the frequency offset from the carrier
and the time delay between transmit and receive signals [1].
This phase noise correlation factor is calculated as:
(1)
where CFpn is the phase noise correlation factor
fb is the frequency offset from the carrier in Hz,
dt is the time delay between the local oscillator path
to the mixer and the coupling path.
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Figure 1. Phase Noise Correlation Factor According to the Coupling Path
In FMCW Radars, the range of the target is calculated
from the frequency difference between transmit and receive
signals [2]. This frequency difference is defined as the beat
frequency of the target. The beat frequency (fb) defines the
correlation between the received and reference oscillator
signal. As the path difference between received and reference
oscillator signals increases, the correlation between them
decreases. As the multiplication of two uncorrelated noise
sources increases the noise at the input, the product of these
uncorrelated signals change the system thermal noise level
proportional to the power of the received signal.
In Fig. 1, the phase noise correlation factor is shown with
respect to the frequency offset from the carrier (beat
frequency) that is related to path difference of the received
signal and the reference oscillator. The regions in the red color
shows the frequencies where the thermal noise level increases
because of the highly correlated phase noise between receive
and reference paths.
III. INTERNAL COUPLING SOURCES OF THE FMCW
RADAR
A. Definition Of The Problem
As mentioned before, the factors of coupling originated
from inside of an FMCW radar using single antenna are the
leakage through the circulator and the reflections from the
antenna. In Fig. 2, these two factors are shown on the block
diagram of the single antenna FMCW radar system.
Figure 2. Possible Coupling Paths for an FMCW Radar Using Single
Antenna
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Figure 3. Possible Coupling Paths for an FMCW Radar Using Separate Tx
and Rx Antennas
The factors of coupling originated from inside of an
FMCW radar using separate Tx and Rx antennas are the
coupling between the antennas and the coupling in rotary joint
unit that are shown in Fig. 3.
All of these strong signals leaking into the receiver path
have uncorrelated phase noises because of the difference
between reference oscillator and leaked signal path. So, the
product of these uncorrelated noises can change the system
thermal noise level.
B. Experimental Results
Fig. 4 shows an experimental result of the phase noise
correlation effect.
An experimental X-band FMCW Radar is used to collect
the data set. Green line is the thermal noise level at the input
of the receiver path while the Tx and Rx antennas are isolated
carefully. When the isolation between the antennas is
removed, it can be seen that the thermal noise increases with
coupling.
The red line shows the expected thermal noise with
coupling calculated with eight meter coupling path difference
(the difference between path-1 and path-3 shown in Fig. 3).
We can see that the calculated noise level with coupling
matches the measured system thermal noise level.
Figure 4. Thermal Noise Level Change Because of the Coupling Between
Tx and Rx Antennas
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C. Preventive Measures
In the design phase, preventive measures can be taken to
minimize or avoid the effect of phase noise. Basically, the
main idea is to decrease the signal leakage because of the
coupling path in an FMCW Radar using single antenna.
Designing an antenna having low return loss to minimize the
signal level at the path-3 shown in Fig. 2 and choosing a
circulator having high isolation between its ports 1 and 3 to
decrease the leakage level at the path-2 shown in Fig. 2 should
be the first preventive measures.
But, generally, these measures are not enough to
completely cancel the leakage signal. Other techniques have to
be used to avoid the problem.
Reflected Power Canceller (RPC) is the best technique to
minimize the leakage signal formed at the frequencies close to
DC. This technique adaptively adjusts the phase difference
between the oscillator path and the coupling path with respect
to the instantaneous frequency. RPC has basically three main Figure 5. Phase Noise Correlation Factor According to the Coupling Path
for a Contant RCS Reflector
parts: vector modulator, I/Q demodulator and the control
circuits. Although designing these individual parts is not
challanging, combining them together and adjustment of the IV. EXTERNAL COUPLING SOURCES OF THE
control circuit is the actual work has to be done to develop an FMCW RADAR
RPC.
A. Definition Of The Problem
For an FMCW Radar using separate Tx and Rx antennas, As mentioned before, some of the factors of coupling are
first preventive measure has to design the antennas to have originated outside the radar like reflections from the surfaces
very low coupling between them. In this way, the leakage of the radar platform within the radar operation zone and
signal level at the path-3 shown in Fig. 3 can be minimized. reflections from close targets with large RCS 4]. These closely
The other method is using a Delay Line Canceller (DLC). placed reflectors causes an increase in the radar system
DLC equalize the lengths and magnitudes of the oscillator and thermal noise level.
leakage paths. In this way, the phase center of the transmitted Fig. 5 shows the phase noise correlation factor according
signal is moved to the coupling point and the correlation to the coupling path distance and frequency offset from the
between the phase noises of these signals is maximized. carrier for a constant RCS reflector.
To verify its usefulness, we tested a DLC in the As shown in Fig. 5, the increase in the thermal noise level
experiment shown in Fig. 4. The coupling path difference is is higher for close ranges because the received signal level is
measured and this path difference is then equalized by tuning higher.
the DLC. The results show us the DLC cancels the phase noise
problem caused by coupling. By using a DLC, the thermal B. Experimental Results
noise level showed as green in Fig. 4 is reached. During the
tests, it is seen that the DLC length has to be tuned finely if the If a slice is taken at the range of 70 meters as shown in
coupled signal level is high. Otherwise, a rough tuning (about Fig. 5 with the black line, this gives us the noise level
10 cm precision) is enough. distorted by the phase noise correlation between received and
reference signals. Fig. 6 shows the experimental result of this
The performance of the DLC can be further improved by effect.
using windowing [3] before FFT process. In case of bad
adjustment of the DLC length meaning that the path difference A target having a high RCS is placed at 70 m away from
is not zero, thermal noise level increases by phase noise the experimental X-Band FMCW Radar. The green line shows
correlation factor at the frequencies outside zero beat the noise level in the case where there is no target in front of
frequency. Using windowing decreases this altering effect at the radar. The blue line shows the data received by the radar
these frequencies. Another benefit of windowing is following. when the target is placed at 70 m in front of the radar, and the
As the length of the delay line should be adjusted more red line shows the expected thermal noise change because of
sensitive without windowing, with windowing a rough the phase noise correlation caused by this target. This red line
adjustment can be enough for cancelation. is the slice shown in Fig. 5.

The DLC method works fine if there is only one coupling

point. If there are two coupling points with equal leakage
signal levels as shown in Fig. 3, the method starts to fail. If the
leakage signal levels are different, DLC length adjustment has
to be done according to the high coupling point.

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Figure 6. Thermal Noise Level Distorted by the Phase Noise Correlation
Between Received and Reference Signals
In Figure 6, the target also can be seen in the received
signal data at 28th range bin. Because of the 60 MHz
frequency sweep, radar has 2.5m range resolution. This gives
a 70m range for the target.
This result verifies that the experimental result completely
matches the theory.
Because of the reflections from the surfaces of the radar
platform within the radar operation zone, the thermal noise
level can also increase. Fig. 7 shows the effect of the phase
noise correlation seen during the sea trials. The corruption in
the radar video marked with the white circle caused by the
wrong placement of the radar. Because of the mast at the right
back of the radar, the thermal noise level increases during the
strong reflections coming from it.
The other defeats marked with the green circle caused by
the big targets standing close to the radar. These big targets
can mask the small targets at the same bearing because of this
corruption.
a) b)
Figure 7. a) The Effect of the Phase Noise Correlation, b) Radar Video
After Normalization
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C. Preventive Measures
The first and the simplest measure to avoid this problem
caused by the factors originated outside the radar is to use
coherent integration. By using coherent integration, SNR can
be improved in spite of the increases in the thermal noise level
caused by the phase noise correlation.
In spite of taking all measures to avoid the phase noise
correlation problem, there can still be some distortions of the
thermal noise floor. Thinking that the general purpose of
FWCW Radars is navigation, production of a very clear radar
video is very important. To do this, some form of video
normalization algorithms can be used.
The main idea in video normalization algorithms is
cancelling the disturbance in the thermal noise level. These
techniques are used just to ameliorate the altering effects of
the phase noise caused by internal and external sources and
they don’t increase the detection performance. The simplest
normalization technique is using a sliding window in which
the mean noise level is calculated and corrected to the
expected level.
An example output of the video normalization is shown in
Fig. 7. While Fig. 7–a shows the real video, Fig. 7-b shows
the normalized video. This gives a great advantage in
navigation under the effect of the phase noise correlation.
V. CONCLUSION
As investigated in this paper, the effect of the phase noise
is one of the main problems in FMCW Radars. There can be
both internal and external sources of this problem and some
design techniques can be used to reduce the effect.
The first measure is choosing the design parameters to
avoid any coupling from the transmitter path to the receiver
path. In addition, the radar should be integrated to the platform
such that interaction with the environment would be
minimized. Other techniques that can be used to reduce the
effect of the phase noise are PRC, DLC, windowing, coherent
integration and video normalization. Those methods are
proposed against the disturbances in the noise level and the
experiments show that the results are matched with the theory.
These results show that the performance of an FMCW
Radar can be improved by using these techniques.
REFERENCES
[1] J. A. Scheer and J. L. Kurtz “Coherent Radar Performance Estimation”,
pp. 300 – 305
[2] G. M. Brooker, “Understanding Millimetre Wave FMCW Radars”,
International Conference on Sensors and Technology, November 2005
[3] M. A. Richards, “Fundamentals of Radar Signal Processing”, McGraw
Hill Book Co., New York, NY,2005
[4] P. D. L. Beasley, “The Influence of Tranmitter Phase Noise on FMCW
Radar”, Proceedings of the 36th European Microwave Conference
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