At EuMW 2026, dSPACE showcased radar test and validation solutions designed to help engineers evaluate high-resolution radar sensors under realistic target separation and interference scenarios. At its booth, dSPACE highlighted its new DARTS 9050-DG radar target simulator alongside its Radar Test Bench Essential 2D platform. The demonstrations focused on helping engineers validate increasingly sophisticated radar sensors through realistic target simulation, target separation testing, and radar interference testing in a controlled laboratory environment.
European Microwave Week (EuMW) 2026, held from 4-9 October in London, is Europe’s premier event for the RF, microwave, mmWave, and radar industry, bringing together the companies and technologies shaping the future of high-frequency engineering.
DARTS 9050-DG Radar Target Simulator
Alexander Trapp, Product Manager for DARTS Radar Target Simulator Systems at dSPACE, introduced the new DARTS 9050-DG radar target simulator. It is the first radar target simulator capable of digitally generating radar targets with a continuous 5 GHz bandwidth across the entire signal chain. This allows the system to reproduce radar echoes without bandwidth compression or distortion, preserving the same level of detail that modern high-resolution radar sensors use to detect and distinguish objects.
As automotive, aerospace, defense, and industrial radar systems adopt wider bandwidths to improve range resolution, conventional simulators can become a limiting factor because they cannot fully emulate the radar waveform. By maintaining the full 5 GHz bandwidth from input to output, the DARTS 9050-DG can accurately recreate complex real-world scenarios, including targets that are closely spaced together, helping engineers evaluate how well a radar sensor can detect, separate, and track objects under realistic conditions.
The platform supports the simultaneous generation of multiple radar targets and includes software-based scene-generation functions that enable more advanced and dynamic radar environments. Its fully digital architecture also allows new capabilities to be added through software and firmware updates, reducing the need for hardware changes as radar technologies evolve.
The simulator’s dual-frontend architecture enables precise angle simulation and target separation testing. Through exchangeable frontend converters, the system can be configured for a range of radar frequency bands, including 24 GHz, 60 GHz, and 77 GHz, allowing it to support applications beyond automotive radar, including aerospace, defense, and industrial sensing systems. Designed as a future-ready radar validation platform, the DARTS 9050-DG enables repeatable laboratory testing while helping engineers validate increasingly sophisticated radar sensors before deployment in real-world environments.
Radar Test Bench Essential 2D
A second demonstration by Christian Schäfers, Product Manager for Radar Test Benches at dSPACE, showcased the company’s Radar Test Bench Essential 2D platform, a laboratory-based solution for validating radar sensor performance under controlled and repeatable conditions. In the setup, the radar under test was mounted on a motorized gimbal that could precisely rotate and tilt the sensor to emulate various vehicle maneuvers and operating scenarios. The radar was connected to a DARTS 9040-GT radar target simulator, which can generate two highly precise radar targets while maintaining the full 5 GHz bandwidth of modern automotive radar systems.
The DARTS 9040-GT was developed specifically for testing the separation capability of next-generation high-resolution radar sensors, allowing engineers to simulate targets approaching from different angles or located at different distances within the same test scenario. During the demonstration, Christian showed how target separation tests can be performed by varying the distance and angular position of simulated objects. These tests help determine how effectively a radar sensor can distinguish between closely spaced targets, a critical requirement for modern 4D imaging radars that must accurately detect and track multiple vehicles, pedestrians, and other objects in dense traffic environments. The DARTS 9040-GT enables these evaluations using a single simulator, simplifying test setups that previously required multiple devices.
Christian also demonstrated radar interference testing using the Essential 2D platform. In this setup, a second radar sensor was placed inside a compact anechoic chamber and used as a controlled interference source. The signals generated by this radar were captured and injected into the test scenario while the radar under test simultaneously received simulated target reflections from the DARTS radar target simulator.
By combining radar targets with real interference signals, the demonstration showed how engineers can evaluate a radar sensor’s ability to continue detecting, tracking, and distinguishing objects when other radar systems are operating nearby. Christian explained that the controlled setup allows interference levels and test conditions to be reproduced consistently, making it possible to compare sensor performance across different scenarios and development stages.
Together with the target separation demonstrations, the Radar Test Bench Essential 2D highlighted how engineers can assess both object detection performance and interference resilience in a repeatable laboratory environment, reducing the need for large-scale outdoor testing.
European Microwave Week 2026 showcased the latest developments in wireless communications, radar, aerospace and defense, automotive electronics, semiconductors, antennas, and test and measurement solutions. From advanced radar validation platforms to next-generation sensing technologies, the event highlighted many of the innovations shaping the future of high-frequency systems. To discover more technologies, product launches, and demonstrations from across the exhibition floor, explore everything RF’s complete EuMW 2026 coverage.