reid.wiki

Projects / RF & Antennas

Phased Array Simulator

A Rust + Three.js simulation environment for the phased array hardware — beam steering, FMCW radar DSP, and a virtual STM32, live in the browser.

Status
Complete
Timeline
2025 — 2026
Last updated
January 2026
RustAxumWebSocketsThree.jsFMCW DSPCFARAWS EC2

Overview

Phased array hardware is slow and expensive to iterate on; the algorithms don’t have to be. This is a web-based simulation environment for the 5.8 GHz array: a Rust workspace of five crates — array physics core, environment simulation, radar DSP, MCU simulation, and an Axum server — with a Three.js frontend streaming live 3D beam patterns over WebSockets.

What it models

  • Array physics for the 4×4 HMC1133 configuration, including a behavioral model of the 6-bit phase shifters.
  • A virtual STM32 with SPI timing, so control firmware logic can be tested without silicon.
  • Full FMCW radar chain: chirp generation, range-Doppler maps, CFAR detection, and Swerling I–IV fluctuating-RCS target models.
  • Live 3D visualization of beam steering against simulated targets.

Status

Deployed and operational on EC2 as a systemd service, with GitHub Actions auto-deploy on push to main. Remaining polish (FMCW visualization, nginx/HTTPS termination, UI styling) is parked until the physical array gets fabricated.