Design and manufacture of horn lens antennas of 80 GHz MMwave FMCW radar for cryogenic fluids level measurement

Recently, development of a cryogenic fluids storage tank for storing or transporting liquid hydrogen is actively in progress. In cryogenic fluids storage tanks, hydrogen evaporates due to the extreme temperature difference inside and outside the tank. As the mass of the cryogenic fluids changes with continuous vaporization, the fluids level also changes. Therefore, there is need for a method of accurately measuring the level change in the storage tank. In the case of general cryogenic fluids, it is difficult to accurately measure the level because the dielectric constant is very low. As a method of measuring cryogenic fluids level with low dielectric constant, it can be used an Millimeter wave (MM wave) FMCW radar sensor. However, the signal sensitivity is very weak and the level accuracy is poor. In this paper, the signal sensitivity is improved by designing the horn lens antenna of the existing 80 GHz FMCW radar sensor. Horn lens antenna is fabricated by FDM/SLA type 3D printer according to horn and lens characteristics. The horn is used to increase the signal gain and the lens improves the signal straightness. This makes it possible to measure the level of cryogenic fluids with a low dielectric constant.