Assessment of RCS in Close Range CW Doppler Radar Measurements

A robust understanding of the relationship between radar-measured quantities and moving-target radar cross section (RCS) is essential for advancing physiological radar. A method for recovering absolute RCS values of dynamic targets using a CW Doppler radar system is presented which incorporates near-field and far-field impact on received signal amplitude modulation and measurement accuracy. Findings indicate that RCS calibration measurements in the far-field do not assure scalability across range variation, indicating the need for range- and frequencyspecific calibration. Accordingly, the introduction of a permeasurement calibration technique achieved an error of less than 7.9% for absolute RCS measurements across a range spanning both near- and far-field conditions.