Metamaterial Radome for Automotive Radar

汽车雷达传感器是新一代自动驾驶汽车的关键新兴技术。这些传感器将在未来的智能城市中发挥至关重要的作用。该合作项目旨在显著提高毫米波（mm-wave）频率的先进汽车雷达传感器的功率效率和精度。尽管在天线罩设计方面进行了广泛的研究，但由于雷达波束从侧面扫描到大扫描角度，仍然不可能始终如一地实现小反射和高定位精度。这是因为大多数传统的天线罩都是基于各向同性的纯电材料，比如塑料。在这个项目中，我们将使用先进的超材料概念和结构来设计新型天线罩，与最先进的技术相比，这些天线罩可以产生前所未有的性能。由于加拿大拥有强大的汽车行业和对智能城市未来的愿景，因此对加拿大的好处可能是巨大的。在这个愿景中，自动电动汽车将在缓解气候变化和大城市交通拥堵等问题上发挥关键作用。特别是，该项目旨在改进雷达传感器的天线罩，以保护它们免受灰尘、湿度、雨和雪等环境条件的影响。利用先进的超材料概念，我们将开发一种新型的天线罩，它将最大限度地提高角度扫描的覆盖范围和精度，同时通过减少不必要的反射来节省电力。

Automotive radar sensors represent a key emerging technology for a new generation of autonomous vehicles. These sensors will play a crucial role in the smart cities of connected electric vehicles of the future. This partnership project aims at significantly improving the power efficiency and accuracy of advanced automotive radar sensors at millimeter-wave (mm-wave) frequencies.Despite the extensive research that exists in radome design, it is still not possible to consistently achieve small reflections and high positioning accuracy, as the radar beam is scanned off broadside to large scan angles. This is because most conventional radomes are based on isotropic electric-only materials such as plastics. In this project, we will use advanced metamaterial concepts and structures to devise new classes of radomes that can result in unprecedented performance compared to the state of the art.The benefits to Canada can be significant since Canada has a strong automotive sector and a vision for a future in smart cities. In this vision, autonomous electrical vehicles will play a key role to alleviate issues like climate change and traffic congestion in big cities. In particular, this project aims at improving the radomes that typically house these radar sensors to protect them from environmental conditions such as dust, humidity, rain and snow. Using advanced metamaterial concepts, we will develop a new class of radomes that will maximize angular scan coverage and accuracy, whereas conserving power by minimizing unwanted reflections.