Power control for improved near-far performance of radar systems

[0001] The present application claims the filing benefits of U.S. provisional applications, Ser. No. 62/371,257, filed Aug. 5, 2016, Ser. No. 62/361,587, filed Jul. 13, 2016 and Ser. No. 62/352,277, filed Jun. 20, 2016, which are all hereby incorporated by reference herein in their entireties.

[0002] The present invention is directed to radar systems, and in particular to radar systems for vehicles.

[0003] The use of radar to determine range and velocity of objects in an environment is important in a number of applications including automotive radar and gesture detection. A radar typically transmits a signal and listens for the reflection of the signal from objects in the environment.

[0004] The present invention provides methods and a system for achieving better performance in a radar system when there is a near object and a far object. The invention accomplishes better detectability of the far object in the presence of a near object by altering the transmission power as a function of time.

[0005] A radar sensing system for a vehicle comprises at least one transmitter, at least one receiver, and a processor. The at least one transmitter is configured for installation and use on a vehicle, and able to transmit a radio frequency (RF) signal. The at least one transmitter is further able to power shape the transmitted RF signal. The transmitted RF signal decreases in power over a plurality of time intervals. The at least one receiver is configured for installation and use on the vehicle, and able to receive a reflected RF signal. The reflected RF signal is the transmitted RF signal reflected from targets in the environment. The reflected RF signal is down-converted and the result provided to the processor. The processor samples the down-converted reflected RF signal to produce a sampled stream. The processor is able to process the sampled stream during the plurality of time intervals. The different time intervals of the plurality of time intervals will contain different signal levels of RF signals reflected from near and far targets. The processor is further able to select samples in the sampled stream over a selected time interval of the plurality of time intervals that is free of RF signals reflected off of the near targets.

[0006] A radar sensing system for a vehicle comprises at least one transmitter, at least one receiver, and a processor. The at least one transmitter is configured for installation and use on a vehicle, and able to transmit a radio frequency (RF) signal. The at least one transmitter is further able to transmit the RF signal on a selected frequency during a selected time interval of a plurality of time intervals and to transmit the RF signal on another selected frequency during another selected time interval of the plurality of time intervals. The at least one receiver is configured for installation and use on the vehicle, and able to receive a reflected RF signal. The reflected RF signal is the transmitted RF signal reflected from objects in the environment. The reflected RF signal is down-converted and the result provided to the processor. The processor samples the down-converted reflected RF signal to produce a sampled stream. The processor is able to process the sampled stream during the plurality of time intervals. The different time intervals of the plurality of time intervals will contain different signal levels of RF signals reflected from targets. The processor is further operable to select samples in the sampled stream from a selected time interval of the plurality of time intervals that is free of RF signals reflected off of near targets.

[0007] A radar sensing system for a vehicle comprises at least one transmitter, at least one receiver, and a processor. The at least one transmitter is configured for installation and use on a vehicle, and able to transmit a radio frequency (RF) signal. The at least one transmitter is further able to power shape the transmitted RF signal. The transmitted RF signal decreases in power over time to compensate for the mismatched attenuations between near and far targets. The at least one transmitter is further able to transmit the RF signal on a selected frequency of a plurality of frequencies during a selected time interval of a plurality of time intervals and to transmit the RF signal on another selected frequency during another selected time interval of the plurality of time intervals. The at least one receiver is configured for installation and use on the vehicle, and able to receive a reflected RF signal on a plurality of frequencies. The reflected RF signal is the transmitted RF signal reflected from targets in the environment. The reflected RF signal is down-converted and the result provided to the processor. The processor samples the down-converted reflected RF signal to produce a sampled stream. The processor is able to process the sampled stream during a plurality of time intervals. The different time intervals of the plurality of time intervals will contain different signal levels of RF signals reflected from the targets. The processor is further able to select samples in the sampled stream over a selected time interval of the plurality of time intervals that is free of RF signals reflected off of near targets.

[0008] Signal processing of RF signals reflecting from near targets may occur during a first time interval of the plurality of time intervals, while signal processing of RF signals reflecting from distant targets may occur during a second time interval of the plurality of time intervals that is after the first time interval. During the first time interval, the transmitted RF signal may be decreasing in power, and during the second time interval, there is no transmitted RF signal. During the first time interval, the at least one receiver may ignore the reflected RF signal, and during the second time interval, the at least one receiver may receive the reflected RF signal. The reflected RF signal has a return signal strength of 1/r4, such that near and distant targets have a similar RCS.

[0009] The variable power is such that the RF signal reflected from a near object may have a lower transmitted power than the RF signal reflected from a most distant object at a given time. That is, a large amplitude RF signal is initially transmitted. The transmitted power is then decreased as a function of time. The processor may be further able to select a time interval of the plurality of time intervals to process a selected plurality of range bins. The RF signals reflected from the first near target are not large enough to interfere with RF signals reflected from the second distant target.

[0010] These and other objects, advantages, purposes and features of the present invention will become apparent upon review of the following specification in conjunction with the drawings.

[0038] The present invention will now be described with reference to the accompanying figures, wherein numbered elements in the following written description correspond to like-numbered elements in the figures. Methods and systems of the present invention may achieve better performance from a radar system when there is a near object and a far object. Exemplary embodiments of the present invention accomplishes better detectably of the far object in the presence of a near object by altering the transmission power of the radar system as a function of time.

[0039] The present invention provides methods and a system for achieving better performance in a radar system when there is a near object and a far object. The invention accomplishes better detectability of the far object in the presence of a near object by altering transmission power as a function of time.

[0040] A radar system utilizes one or more transmitters to transmit radio frequency (RF) signals. These RF signals are reflected from objects in the environment, also called targets, by one or more receivers of the radar system. The radar system uses one or more receivers to receive RF signals. A transmitter/receiver pair is called a virtual radar. The receivers of the radar system have a down-converter that outputs complex valued digitized samples (i.e., values comprising a mathematical real component and a mathematical imaginary component) to a processor. The complex-valued digitized samples are correlated with various time-delayed replicas of the transmitted RF signals for different receivers. These samples are arranged in two-dimensional arrays known as time slices. The samples are placed into respective range bins of the two-dimensional array (as used herein, a range bin refers to a distance range corresponding to a particular time delay corresponding to the round trip time of the radar signal from a transmitter, to the target/object, and back to the receiver). The virtual receivers of the radar system (a virtual receiver for each virtual radar of the radar system) define an x-axis of the two-dimensional time slice and the range bins define a y-axis of the two-dimensional time slice. Another time slice comprising complex-valued samples is generated every 2-30 microseconds. Over a longer time interval, herein referred to as a “scan” (typically, in a duration of 1-60 milliseconds or longer), multiple time slices are accumulated to form a three-dimensional radar data cube. An x-axis of the three-dimensional radar data cube is defined by time (of each respective time slice requiring 2-30 microseconds), while the receivers (or virtual receivers) define a z-axis of the three-dimensional radar data cube, and the range bins and their corresponding time delays define a y-axis of the three-dimensional radar data cube. A radar data cube may have a preselected or dynamically defined quantity of time slices. For example, a radar data cube may include a 100 time slices or a 1000 time slices of data. Similarly, a radar data cube may include different numbers of range bins.

[0041] The complex-valued samples of the received RF signals are the products of a correlation between multiple time-delayed replicas of the transmitted RF signals—with a time-delayed replica corresponding to each range bin—and the received RF signals. When a particular time-delayed replica in a particular range bin correlates highly with the received RF signal, it is an indication of the time delay (i.e., range of the target/object) for the transmitted RF signal that is received after reflecting from a target/object. As discussed herein, each time slice contains one sample in a time series of samples upon which Doppler processing is performed (e.g., a Fast Fourier Transform). In other words, a time series of samples comprises the samples of a particular range bin for a particular receiver (or virtual receiver/radar). The longer the chain of time series of samples, the higher the Doppler resolution.

[0042] The transmitted radio frequency (RF) signals are reflected from objects in the environment and are received back at the radar receivers (or virtual receivers/radars). The transmitted signal from each radar transmitter consists of a baseband signal which is upconverted to an RF signal by an RF upconverter followed by an antenna. The received signal at each radar receiver antenna is downconverted by an RF downconverter to a complex baseband signal. The baseband transmitted RF signals and the reflected RF signals after down-conversion in the receiver are provided to the processor. As an example, a baseband signal used for transmission by one transmitter of the radar system might consist of repeated sequences of random or pseudo-random binary values for one transmitter, e.g., (−1, −1, −1, −1, 1, 1, 1, −1, 1, 1, −1, −1, 1, −1, 1), although any sequence, including non-binary sequences and non-periodic sequences, could be used and different sequences would be used for different transmitters.

[0043] The transmitted signal at a radio frequency may be obtained by mixing a baseband signal with a local oscillator signal. At the receiver (receive pipeline), the received RF signal is down-converted by typical amplification, filtering, and mixing with in-phase and quadrature-phase components of an oscillator. The resulting complex signal after down-conversion is sampled and then correlated with different delays (time shifts) of replicas of the baseband signal to produce a complex-correlation value for each period of the binary sequence. A particular correlator that has a replica that is matched in delay to the time delay of the reflected RF signal from an object would produce a large magnitude complex correlator output. A single correlator will produce a sequence of correlator outputs that will be large if the reflected signal has a delay that matches the delay of the replica of the baseband transmitted signal. If there is a different velocity of the radar system as compared to an object causing a reflection, there will be a Doppler shift in the frequency of the reflected RF signal relative to the transmitted RF signal. A sequence of correlator outputs for one particular delay will have complex values that rotate at a rate related to the Doppler shift. Using a sequence of correlator outputs (also referred to as a scan), the Doppler shift may be estimated and thus the velocity of the object in the environment can be determined. The longer the sequence of correlator outputs used to estimate the Doppler frequency, the greater the accuracy and resolution of the estimation of the Doppler frequency, and thus, the greater the accuracy in estimating the velocity of the object.

[0044] There may be scans for different correlators that use replicas of the transmitted signal with different delays. Because there are multiple transmitters and multiple receivers, there may be correlators that process a received RF signal at each receiver that are matched to a particular transmitted RF signal by a particular transmitter. Each transmitter/receiver pair is called a “virtual radar” (a radar system preferably has 4 virtual radars, or more preferably 32 virtual radars, and most preferably 256 or more virtual radars). The receive pipeline of each receiver of the radar system will thus generate a sequence of correlator outputs (time slices) for each possible delay and for each virtual receiver/radar. This set of data is called a radar data cube (RDC). The delays are also called range bins. The part of the radar data cube for one point in the sequence of correlator outputs is called a time slice, and it contains one correlator output for each range bin and virtual receiver/radar combination. Storing the radar data cube can involve large amount of memory, as its size depends on the desired number of virtual radars (for example, 4-64 or more virtual radars), the desired number of range bins (for example, 100-500 or more range bins), and the desired number of time slices (for example, 200-3000 or more time slices).

[0045] The complex-valued digitized samples contained in a three-dimensional radar data cube may be processed, preferably by a processor established as a CMOS processor and coprocessor on a common/same semiconductor substrate, typically a silicon substrate. In one embodiment, the processor comprises fixed function and programmable CPUs and/or programmable logic controls (PLCs). Preferably, the system will be established with a radar system architecture (including, for example, analog RF circuitry for the radar, processor(s) for radar processing, memory module(s), and other associated components of the radar system) all on a common/same semiconductor substrate. The system may preferably incorporate additional processing capabilities (such as, for example, image processing of image data captured by one or more vehicle cameras such as by utilizing aspects of the systems described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,877,897; 5,796,094; 6,396,397; 6,690,268 and 5,550,677, which are hereby incorporated herein by reference in their entireties) within the common/same semiconductor substrate as well.

[0046] The ability of a continuous-wave radar system to distinguish multiple objects/targets is dependent upon the radar system's range, angle, and Doppler resolutions. Range resolution is limited by a radar's bandwidth (i.e., the chip rate in a phase modulated continuous wave radar), while angle resolution is limited by the size of the antenna array aperture. Meanwhile, increasing Doppler resolution only requires a longer scan. A high Doppler resolution is very valuable because no matter how close two objects or targets are to each other, as long as they have slightly differing radial velocity (their velocity towards or away from the radar system), they can be distinguished by a radar system with a high enough Doppler resolution. Consider a walking adult next to a walking child, where the adult is moving towards the radar system at 1.5 meters per second while the child is moving towards the radar system at 1.2 meters per second (ignoring how fast the radar system may be moving). If the Doppler resolution of the radar system is high enough, the radar system will be able to distinguish the two targets. However, if the radar system is only able to achieve Doppler resolutions of up to an exemplary 0.5 meters per second, the radar system will be unable to distinguish the two targets. Preferably, the Doppler resolution is 0.1 meter per second (m/s) and more preferably less than 0.05 m/s.

[0047] FIG. 1 illustrates an exemplary radar system 100 configured for use in a vehicle 150. In an aspect of the present invention, a vehicle 150 may be an automobile, truck, or bus, etc. As illustrated in FIG. 1, the radar system 100 may comprise one or more transmitters and one or more receivers 104a-104d for a plurality of virtual radars. Other configurations are also possible. FIG. 1 illustrates receivers/transmitters 104a-104d placed to acquire and provide data for object detection and adaptive cruise control. The radar system 100 (providing such object detection and adaptive cruise control or the like) may be part of an Advanced Driver Assistance System (ADAS) for the automobile 150.

[0048] FIG. 2A illustrates an exemplary radar system 200 with an antenna 202 that is time-shared between a transmitter 206 and a receiver 208 via a duplexer 204. As also illustrated in FIG. 2A, output from the receiver 208 is received by a control and processing module 210 that processes the output from the receiver 208 to produce display data for the display 212. As discussed herein, the control and processing module 210 is also operable to produce a radar data output that is provided to other control units. The control and processing module 210 is also operable to control the transmitter 206. FIG. 2B illustrates an alternative exemplary radar system 250 with a pair of antennas 202a, 202b, a separate antenna 202a for the transmitter 206 and another antenna 202b for the receiver 208. While pulse radar systems may use shared or separate antennas, continuous-wave radars (discussed herein) will use separate antennas (for transmitting and receiving) because of their continuous operation.

[0049] The radar sensing system of the present invention may utilize aspects of the radar systems described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 15/204,003, filed Jul. 7, 2016, now U.S. Pat. No. 9,575,160, and/or Ser. No. 15/204,002, filed Jul. 7, 2016, now U.S. Pat. No. 9,599,702, and/or U.S. provisional applications, Ser. No. 62/319,613, filed Apr. 7, 2016, Ser. No. 62/327,003, filed Apr. 25, 2016, Ser. No. 62/327,004, filed Apr. 25, 2016, Ser. No. 62/327,005, filed Apr. 25, 2016, Ser. No. 62/327,006, filed Apr. 25, 2016, Ser. No. 62/327,015, filed Apr. 25, 2016, Ser. No. 62/327,016, filed Apr. 25, 2016, Ser. No. 62/327,017, filed Apr. 25, 2016, and/or Ser. No. 62/327,018, filed Apr. 25, 2016, which are all hereby incorporated by reference herein in their entireties.

[0050] There are several types of radio frequency (RF) signals used in radar systems. One type of radar RF signal is known as a frequency-modulated continuous-waveform (FMCW). In an FMCW radar system, the transmitter of the radar system sends a continuous signal in which the frequency of the RF signal varies. This is sometimes called a chirp radar system. At the receiver a matched filter may be used to process the received RF signal. The output of the matched filter is a so-called “pulse-compressed” signal with a pulse duration inversely proportional to the bandwidth used in the chirp signal.

[0051] Another type of radar RF signal is known as a phase-modulated continuous-waveform (PMCW). For this type of RF signal, the phase of the transmitted RF signal is changed according to a certain pattern or code, sometimes called a spreading code, which is known at the radar receiver (see FIGS. 8-10). The faster the phase is changed, the wider the bandwidth of the transmitted RF signal. This is sometimes called spread-spectrum because the signal power is spread over a wide bandwidth. As illustrated in FIGS. 8-10, the pattern may be implemented as a pseudorandom binary code, where 1s and 0s indicate a positive or negative phase shift. As also illustrated in FIGS. 9 and 10, a phase shift does not always affect the waveform (e.g., a binary code sequence of 1, 1 or 0, 0 does not change the phase of the waveform for the second 1 or 0). In an aspect of the present invention, there may be different types of codes, with each transmitter of a radar system using a separate code. In other modes, each transmitter transmits with a single code that is modulated according to a Hadamard transform.

[0052] At the receiver, a matched filter is used that produces a so-called pulse compressed signal with time resolution proportional to the inverse bandwidth of the transmitted RF signal. Codes with good autocorrelation values are important in single transmitter, single receiver, phase-modulated continuous-wave radars.

[0053] Radars with a single transmitter and a single receiver can determine distance to a target but cannot determine a direction or an angle of a target from the radar sensor or system. To achieve angular information, either multiple transmitters or multiple receivers or both are needed. The larger the number of transmitters and receivers, the better the resolution possible. A system with multiple transmitters and multiple receivers is also called a multiple-input, multiple-output or MIMO system. With MIMO radar systems, the receive pipeline for each receiver of the radar system can have a matched filter for each of the transmitter codes. As discussed herein, a quantity of virtual radars is defined by the quantity of transmitters and physical receivers (a quantity of transmitters times a quantity of physical receivers equals a quantity of virtual radars). A receiver may be referred to as a virtual receiver. A radar system with only a single transmitter will have virtual receivers that are physical receivers, but may still be referred to as virtual receivers.

[0054] One type of radar system transmits the same type of signal continuously. The signal might be a frequency-modulated continuous-wave (FMCW) type of waveform that sweeps a continuous-wave (CW) signal in frequency across some range of frequencies. Mixing (multiplying) the reflected wave from a target with a replica of the transmitted signal results in a CW signal with a frequency that represents the distance between the radar transmitter/receiver and the target. By sweeping up in frequency and then down in frequency the Doppler frequency can also be determined. Phase-modulated continuous-wave (PMCW) radar systems on the other hand transmit an RF signal in which a phase is modulated (e.g., with two values 0 and −π). For a single transmitter, a sequence of phase values—sometimes called a spreading code—that has good autocorrelation properties is required so that ghost targets are minimized. The rate at which the phase is modulated determines the bandwidth of the transmitted RF signal.

[0055] An exemplary radar system determines the range of an object or the distance to an object by determining how long it takes an echo of a transmitted RF signal to be heard back at the receive pipeline of the radar system. From this measured time delay and knowing that the electromagnetic RF signals travel at the speed of light (or ultrasonic signals traveling at the speed of sound), the distance can be determined. A typical way of determining the time delay is by correlating a received RF signal with multiple time-delayed replicas of the transmitted RF signal (via the use of range bins, as discussed herein). When a particular time-delayed replica corresponding to a particular range bin correlates highly with the received RF signal (which results in a larger amplitude signal as compared to a RF signal that does not correlate highly with the received RF signal), it is an indication of the time delay (or equivalent range) for the transmitted RF signal that is received after reflecting from an object. Because there can be multiple objects in the environment, there will be multiple time delays for which there will be a high correlation. While a virtual receiver/radar could correlate the received RF signal with all possible delays, generally there is a finite set of delays with which the virtual receiver/radar will correlate (that is, the range bins).

[0056] The ranges corresponding to the different time delays generated by replica signals are the above mentioned range bins. They may also be known as “range gates.” The accuracy of range determination increases as the bandwidth of the transmitted RF signal increases (as the rate at which the phase of the signal changes) and as the number of time-delay replicas increase. A receiver that uses a matched filter may generate correlation values for all possible time delays (each range bin). This matched filter receiver will still have a range resolution that depends on the bandwidth of the transmitted signal.

[0057] A radar system can determine the velocity of an object by measuring the frequency offset between the transmitted RF signal and the received RF signal. The RF signal reflecting from a moving object will have a frequency shift relative to the transmitted RF signal. This is called the Doppler effect and the frequency shift is called the Doppler shift. A noticeable exemplary Doppler effect may be experienced with regards to trains passing through a road crossing where the frequency of the sound will go down once the train has passed the road crossing. The RF signal reflected off an object moving toward the radar system will have a higher frequency than the transmitted RF signal, and an object moving away will have a lower frequency. If the radar system is also moving, then it is the relative velocity between the radar system and the object that will determine the amount of frequency shift. Thus, measuring the frequency shift will determine the relative velocity of an object in the environment. The time duration of the transmitted RF signal will determine the accuracy or resolution of the Doppler frequency.

[0058] The correlation of replicas of the transmitted RF signal modified at different time delays and different frequency shifts is called the ambiguity function. It is the correlation at different delays and different frequency shifts which are an indication of the range and velocity of the objects in the environment. A virtual radar calculating the ambiguity function can estimate the range and velocity of objects in the environment.

[0059] Because there can be multiple objects in the environment with different ranges and different velocities, there may be multiple reflections with different delays and different frequency shifts. It is important in many applications to measure the frequency shift for different objects at different ranges to determine the velocity of individual objects. Each object in a given range will generate a frequency shift that should be estimated.

[0060] The frequency shift of a received signal at a particular range bin can be measured by looking at the sequence of phase values of the correlator output of the receive pipeline over a set of correlations. The phase shift Δφ between two consecutive correlator outputs that are separated in time ΔT will correspond to a frequency shift, Δf, that can be determined as Δf=Δφ/ΔT. The longer the time duration of the transmitted signal, the more accurate the determination of frequency shift of an object at a particular range bin.

[0061] While the description above is focused on a single transmitter-receiver pair, if there are N transmitters (T×N) and N receivers (R×N), there will be T×N×R×N virtual radars, one for each transmitter-receiver pair. For example, a radar system with eight transmitters and eight receivers will have 64 pairs or 64 virtual radars (with 64 virtual receivers). As illustrated in FIG. 11, when three transmitters (Tx1, Tx2, Tx3) are being received by three receivers (Rx1, Rx2, Rx3), each of the receivers is receiving the transmission from each of the transmitters. Each of the receivers is receiving the sum of all three of the transmissions at the same time. Each receiver can attempt to determine the range and Doppler of objects by correlating with delayed replicas of the signal from one of the transmitters. The physical receivers may then be “divided” into three separate virtual receivers, each virtual receiver correlating with a replica of one of the transmitted signals. In a preferred radar system of the present invention, there are 1-4 transmitters and 4-8 receivers, or more preferably 4-8 transmitters and 8-16 receivers, and most preferably 16 or more transmitters and 16-64 or more receivers.

[0062] Collecting and storing all the information to determine the range and velocity of each object corresponding to each virtual receiver requires significant memory resources. The required memory resources necessary to achieve sufficient Doppler resolution may run into the tens of megabytes to a 100 megabytes or more. For example, the amount of memory necessary to store the data for a single scan of 1000 time slices from 64 virtual radars when that scan accumulates samples across 100 range bins for the 64 virtual radars would be more than 25 megabytes (see FIG. 3). In accordance with an aspect of the present invention, there are preferably 100 range bins, more preferably 200 range bins, and most preferably 500 range bins in each time slice.

[0063] FIG. 4 illustrates an exemplary phase-modulated continuous-wave radar system 400. As illustrated in FIG. 4, the radar system 400 comprises a plurality of receivers and their respective antennas 406 and a plurality of transmitters and their respective antennas 408. The radar system 400 also includes a flash memory 412, and optionally a random access memory 410. The random access memory 410, for example, an external DRAM, may be used to store radar data cube(s) instead of using the limited internal (on-chip) memory (e.g., SRAM), and may also be used to store selected range bins from a greater number of radar data cubes for concatenating for micro-Doppler processing. The radar system also includes a variety of interconnections to an automotive network, e.g., Ethernet, CAN-FD, and Flexray.

[0064] Radar systems have the ability to measure a target's range and angle (azimuth and elevation) and Doppler velocity (range rate of change). The primary metrics in each of these measurements are resolution and accuracy. Resolution is particularly important because it allows the radar system to distinguish (resolve) targets that are closely spaced in range, angle, or Doppler velocity. Range resolution is limited by the radar's bandwidth—chip rate in a PMCW radar. Angle resolution is limited by the size of the antenna array aperture. It is quite common that two neighboring targets cannot be resolved in range or in angle due to physical limitations of the radar. Increased Doppler resolution, on the other hand, only requires a longer scan. No matter how close two targets are to each other, as long as they have slightly differing radial velocity, they can be distinguished by a radar with a sufficiently high enough Doppler resolution. Two examples are (1) a pedestrian walking out into the roadway from between two cars parked along the side of the road, and (2) a motorcycle driving alongside a truck. The radar system of the present invention provides greater sensitivity (to enable the detection of pedestrians or wooden poles for parking) and enhanced resolution in range, azimuth, and elevation. The radar system provides enhanced target discrimination, while providing a cost effective device that provides scalability.

[0065] The PMCW radar system provides fully digital modulation, with features becoming all digital vs analog. The RF is simpler and smaller, with about a 10× advantage in size over FMCW systems. The radar system provides more area for digital processing, and provides improved range resolution, enhanced range isolation—very small targets next to large targets, enhanced interference mitigation architecture (it can handle an order of magnitude more interferers than FMCW), and enhanced isolation from interfering radars. The radar system provides true MIMO processing, which enables unmatched angular and super resolution. The PMCW radar system is also naturally resistant to jamming. The above described PMCW radar system when comprising multiple transmitters and multiple receivers in a multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) system is useful in a radar system where the receivers and transmitters need to receive and transmit simultaneously.

[0066] FIG. 6 illustrates another exemplary radar system of the present invention. Similar to the radar system 400 of FIG. 4, the radar system of FIG. 6 comprises a plurality of transmitter and receiver antennas. The radar system of FIG. 6 also includes RAM and flash memories, as well as interconnections to the automobile. FIG. 7 illustrates an exemplary system on chip architecture for the radar system of FIG. 6.

[0067] FIG. 12 illustrates an exemplary receive pipeline 1210 and an exemplary transmit pipeline 1202 for a radar system of the present invention. As illustrated in FIG. 12, a code generator outputs a code that is used to form a baseband signal that is upconverted to an RF signal by an RF upconverter followed by a transmission antenna. As illustrated in FIG. 12, the received RF signal at a receiver antenna is down-converted by the receive pipeline 1210's amplifiers, filters, and mixers and converted into a complex baseband signal. The resulting signal after down-conversion is sampled by an analog-to-digital converter (ADC) and correlated by a correlator of the receive pipeline 1210 with different delays (time shifts) of replicas of the transmitted sequence to produce a complex correlation value for each period of the binary sequence. A particular correlator that has a replica that is matched in delay to the time delay of the reflected RF signal from an object would produce a large magnitude complex correlator output. A single correlator will produce a sequence of correlator outputs that will be large if the reflected RF signal has a delay that matches the delay of the replica of the baseband transmitted signal. If there is a difference between a velocity of the radar system and a velocity of the object causing the reflection, there will be a Doppler shift in the frequency of the reflected RF signal relative to the transmitted RF signal. A sequence of correlator outputs for one particular delay will have complex values that rotate at a rate related to the Doppler shift. Using a sequence of correlator outputs (also referred to as a scan), the Doppler shift may be estimated and thus the velocity of the object in the environment. The longer the sequence of correlator outputs used to estimate the Doppler frequency, the greater the accuracy and resolution of the estimation of the Doppler frequency, and thus the velocity of the object.

[0068] There may be scans for different correlators that use replicas of the transmitted RF signal with different delays. Because there are multiple transmitters and multiple receivers (virtual radars), there may be correlators that process a received RF signal at each receiver that are matched to a particular transmitted signal by a particular transmitter. The receive pipeline of 1210 for each receiver of the radar system will thus generate a sequence of correlator outputs for each possible delay and for each virtual radar. This set of data is called a radar data cube (RDC) made up of individual time slices.

[0069] In accordance with an aspect of the present invention, the receive pipeline 1210 comprises a correlator block, where the correlator block comprises a bank of correlators with a correlator for every range bin and every virtual radar combination. In other words, a two-dimensional bank of correlators similar to the two-dimensional array of range bins illustrated in FIG. 5. Optionally, the bank of correlators may be smaller than the array of range bins. For example, there may be one correlator for each physical receiver, such that each correlator generates an output for each virtual receiver of the corresponding physical receiver. Optionally, the entire receive pipeline 1210 after the receiver antenna(s) may be implemented on a single integrated chip. Optionally, even the antenna may be implemented on the same single integrated chip as the rest of the receive pipeline 1210. In accordance with another aspect of the present invention, the correlator functionality may be implemented in a receive pipeline. Optionally, the correlator functionality may be implemented in a processor. Optionally, portions of the receive pipeline may be implemented in a processor.

Pulsed PMCW Radars for Improved Object/Target Detection:

[0070] Phase-modulated continuous-wave (PMCW) radars using pseudorandom binary sequence (PRBS) codes, almost perfect autocorrelation sequences (APAS), Golay codes, as well as many other codes, all have range sidelobes that limit the dynamic range of the radar. For PMCW radar systems that utilize PRBS codes, the range sidelobes can be shown to be 10*log(Ts*Rc*Vr) dB smaller than the peak correlation, or 10*log(total chips*Vr) dB, where Vr is the number of virtual receivers, Ts is the scan time, Rc is the chip rate, and the product represents the number of chips processed in the correlator. For a typical radar system with a scan time of 10 ms, a 1 GHz chip rate, and 16 virtual radars (Vr), this represents a sidelobe level of 10*log(160e6) or 82 dB. Many applications for automotive radar require 90-105 dB of dynamic range between the largest to smallest targets. As an example, consider an automobile, such as a truck at a range of 10 meters with a 40 dBsm RCS and a motorcycle at a range of 250 meters with a 0 dBsm RCS. The difference in the signal strength from these objects assuming a free space path loss (in each direction) results in the truck having a stronger signal than the motorcycle (e.g., 40*log(250/10)±(40−0)=95 dB). This implies that the sidelobes due to the truck at 10 meters would make it difficult to detect the motorcycle at 250 meters. Another consideration is that the largest target typically detected is often self-interference from a bumper or antenna coupling. This could add another 60 dB of dynamic range requirement if not handled properly.

[0071] Exemplary methods may be used to cancel out the signal or reduce the sidelobes of the targets, but all of these rely on an accurate measurement of: the distance to the target with sub-range bin accuracy, the phase of the target to within less than 1 degree, and the amplitude of the target. Unfortunately, all of these values are related to the SNR of the target and might not be able to cancel out properly without highly accurate measurements of these three parameters. In addition, the transfer function of the channel must be accurately known or determined to remove the signal or to remove the sidelobes directly. The channel transfer function is changing with the temperature of the sensing device (among other factors), making it difficult to estimate the “what” and “how much” to cancel out in order to remove the signal from the near object. Beyond the channel transfer function, there are also non-linearities that need consideration. These include second and third harmonics, phase pulling of the transmitted or received RF signals, mixer issues, spectral emission mask signal reduction, and a sundry of other non-linearities that are common in analog blocks that can be 20 to 30 dBc down. Some of these require sampling at significantly higher frequencies so that they can be resolved.

[0072] Exemplary embodiments of the present invention provide methods and a system for achieving better performance in a radar system when there is a near object and a far target. Better detectability is accomplished for the far target in the presence of a near target by altering the transmission power as a function of time. Such embodiments provide compensation for the mismatched attenuations between the near and far targets (without compensation, the signals reflected off of near targets have a higher signal strength than the signals reflected off of far targets).

[0073] In an aspect of the present invention, an exemplary transmitter transmits a radio frequency (RF) signal with variable transmission power or a variable duty cycle. The variable power is such that the RF signal reflected from a near target will have a lower transmitted power than the RF signal reflected from a more distant target at a given time. That is, a large amplitude RF signal is initially transmitted. Then the transmitted power is decreased as a function of time. By the time the large amplitude RF signal is reflected off the more distant target and received, the signal strength of the reflected RF signal received from the near target has decreased because the transmitted power causing the reflection from the near target has also decreased. As such, the amount of interference created by the near target is reduced relative to the amount of interference that would be present for a constant power transmitter. The signal strength of the reflected RF signal may be adapted by actually changing the amplitude of the transmitted RF signal or by changing a duty cycle of the transmitted RF signal. The transmission power level will start at some high level and then decrease over time until the transmission power level reaches some minimum value, at which time the process will repeat. As an example, a target or object with a cross-sectional area (RCS) corresponding to the back of an 18-wheeler is about 6.6 square meters (or 8.2 dBsm). At a distance of 25 meters, this would produce a signal level proportional to 6.58/(25)^4), which corresponds to a distance to the fourth power loss model (free space path low in each direction). A correlation over a time duration of 10 ms with a bandwidth of 500 MHz (which results in 5,000,000 chips) with a single receiver would produce sidelobes that are about only 33 dB lower than the peak correlation (10*½*log₁₀ (5,000,000)). This is true for PRBS code sequences because for random sequences, the sidelobes are lower than the peak by the square root of the length of the sequence. Thus, the factor of ½ outside the logarithm. On the other hand, a target with a much smaller radar cross section (e.g., 1 dBsm or 0 dBsm) and at a greater distance (e.g. 300 m), would produce a peak correlation proportional to 1/(2*300)⁴, which is 42 dB lower than the sidelobes of an RF signal received from a nearer target. As a result, the more distant target would not be detectable in the presence of the closer target.

[0074] For example, consider a radar system attempting to detect a motorcycle (with a RCS of 0 dBsm) out to a range of 300 meters, in the presence of a strong target (with a RCS of 40 dBsm) at a range of 25 meters, and with a 10 ms scan (500 Mcps chip rate). The reflected RF signal off of the motorcycle would be approximately 83 dB smaller than the reflected RF signal off of the strong target. The sidelobes due to the strong target would be only 33 dB below the peak signal level and would be about 50 dB stronger than the peak signal of the motorcycle's reflected RF signal. Thus, the strong target would effectively hide any small target signals at a range of 300 meters. Targets with an RCS greater than 16 dBsm would be detectable with a 50% probability, but such would effectively reduce the effective range of the radar system to approximately 40% of the range for the smallest targets, or a range of 120 meters. To alleviate this, an exemplary 50% duty cycle pulse for 4.0 μs (transmitter ON for 2.0 μs, and OFF for 2.0 μs) is illustrated in FIG. 18. In an aspect of the present invention, the receiver may sample the down-converted signal during the full cycle. From time T=0.167 μs to T (25 meters*2=50 meters→167 ns) 2.167 μs, the reflected RF signal contains large amplitude target signals from near targets/objects. From T=2.167 till T=−4.0 μs, the received signal contains reflected RF signals from near targets with amplitudes that aren't large enough to interfere with more distant targets. The power-on target is only a portion of the duty cycle, and hence reduces the link budget of the system by 10*log(1.833/4.000) or −3.4 dB. This will reduce the effective range of the radar to 82% of the range or ˜246 meters. This is a significantly better trade off.

[0075] FIG. 13 is a graph illustrating the output of correlators with delays of the replica ranging from targets at 0 meters to targets at 360 meters. The assumptions made to generate the filter output include the transmitter transmitting a continuous signal with constant power. The receiver correlates the received with delayed replicas of the transmitted signal corresponding to the first 1000 chips (2 ms) of the transmitted signal for delays that range from a target at 0 meters to a target at 360 meters. In other words, FIG. 13 is a plot of the output of a matched filter output which is matched to the first 1000 chips (starting at time 0). Target one is at a range of 25 meters, while target two is at a range of 300 meters. Here the correlation is over a collection of 10,000 chips, at a chip rate of 500 Mcps, collected over 20 μs. Target one (a near target) will have 3 dB higher amplitude than target two (a more distant target). The output due to the near target is illustrated in the top plot which has been normalized to have a peak output of 1000. Here the phase of the reflected signal is assumed to be 0. The output due to the farther target (with the same normalization) is illustrated in the bottom plot. The actual output would be the sum of the two. These are not plotted on the same scale. The output due to the more distant target would not be visible in the scale that would be reasonable for the nearer target. The peak amplitude of the more distant target would not be detectable given the strength of the near target. The sidelobes of the near target have a root mean square value of approximately 33 (on the normalized scale), whereas the peak value of the far target is about 7 (on the normalized scale). Thus, the peak of the far target is much below the sidelobes of the near target. FIG. 14 is a graph illustrating the correlator output due to the sum of the two signals. This is what would actually be observed. Here the more distant target is not detectable because of the strengths of the sidelobes of the near target.

[0076] In order to mitigate the effect of the sidelobes from near targets, the power level of the transmitted signal may be varied. In an aspect of the present invention, the power level of the transmitted RF signal may be varied such that the transmission power decreases over time during a selected period of time and then repeats. For example, as illustrated in FIGS. 18 and 19, the transmitted power level may be adjusted between two levels. During a first time period of 2 μs the transmitter is ON (and at full power), then during a second time period of 2 μs the transmitter is OFF. A target at a distance of 25 meters (with a total distance of 50 meters from radar transmitter to target and back to radar receiver) takes 0.167 μs. Thus, the receiver will receive this strong reflected RF signal from time T=0.167 μs to time T=2.167 μs. On the other hand, a target at 300 m will have a round trip time of 2.0 μs. The reflected RF signal received after 2.0 μs will be received from time T=2.0 μs to time T=4.0 μs (the second time period). During the first 0.167 μs of this second duration, the received signal may be ignored. There will therefore be no interference from the close-in target for the time from T=2.167 μs to time T=4 μs. However, there is a downside to this approach. The transmitter is only ON half the time. Furthermore, the receiver only listens (for the more distant target) a somewhat reduced amount of time (instead of listening from 2-4 μs, the receiver listens from 2.167-4.0 μs). As such, these two factors give rise to a reduction in the signal level by about 3.4 dB. However, the interference from the near in target has been completely isolated and removed.

[0077] FIG. 19 illustrates exemplary transmission and receiver processing timelines. As illustrated in FIG. 19, the transmitter(s) may be ON for a first time period of T=0 to T=2.0 μs, and then OFF for a second time period of T=2.0 to 4.0 μs. During the second time period, the digital receiver may also be turned OFF to further lower digital noise coupling. If the digital receiver should need to be turned OFF to achieve the desired level of noise, the analog signal may be saved in a buffer for later digital processing. While the later digital processing will further slow the radar system and further reduce performance, it is an option under some circumstances.

[0078] As also illustrated in FIG. 19, receiver processing may include “large” signal processing for the range bins covering 0-120 meters during the first time period, and then at 2.187 μs, “small” signal processing for the range bins covering 26-300 meters may take place. Large signal processing includes the processing of reflected signals from near targets while small signal processing includes the processing of reflected signals from more distant targets. FIG. 19 illustrates that reflected RF signals during the first time period will include interference from the bumper, antenna, and internal chip spillover, with the last self-interfering target also returning during the first time period. FIG. 19 also illustrates that the farthest target returned during the second time period will be from 300 meters. The range bin accumulations are also illustrated in FIG. 20, where the range bin accumulations during the first and second time periods are shown to overlap for the range bins for 26-120 meters.

[0079] FIG. 15 is a graph illustrating the correlator outputs with the above described discontinuous transmission (i.e., a duty cycle where the transmitter is turned ON for a period of time and then turned OFF for a period of time) with a target at 25 meters and a target at 300 meters. The top plot is the correlator outputs for the signal received from just the first target, while the bottom plot shows the correlator outputs for just the distant target. The output due to the near target dies out because the transmitted RF signal has been terminated. However, the distant target will still cause an output for the correlators for longer delays (range bins). Because the near target still causes an output after 2 μs there are still relatively large outputs due to the first target. FIG. 16 is a graph illustrating the output due to the sum of these two targets. The first target still dominates the peak correlator output due to the second target because the far target will start arriving at 2 μs while the near target will not finish arriving until 2.167 μs. If the receiver ignores the output until 2.167 μs, then the signal from the near target will be gone and the received signal will only be from the far target. FIG. 17 shows the output of correlators when the receiver only processes the signal after 2.167 μs.

[0080] The above described process of turning the transmitter power ON and then OFF is one possible way to be able to detect a more distant target in the presence of a near target. However, there are other ways this can be done. An alternative is to continuously reduce transmission power level as a function of time so that when a reflected RF signal from a more distant target is arriving at the radar receiver, the reflected RF signal from a near target has a significantly reduced amplitude. This is illustrated in FIGS. 21 and 22. This can be done by decreasing the amplitude of the transmitted RF signal as a function of time so that the reflected RF signal from a nearby target is actually much weaker than the reflected RF signal from a more distant target by the time the far target's reflection arrives at the radar receiver. In an aspect of the present invention, and as illustrated in FIG. 21, the transmitted RF signal may be power shaped according to the equation 1/r^α, where α is between 2.0 and 4.0, such that the transmitted signal power level decreases over time from a peak at T=0 until T=2.0 μs.

[0081] FIGS. 21 and 22 also illustrate that when a returning RF signal decays with time according to 1/r⁴ (due to a power-shaped transmitted RF signal), a constant signal strength is received for objects at various distances, such that they have a constant RCS. In other words, because of the constantly decreasing transmission power, the RCS of near targets will have diminished by the time the more distance targets with similar RCS would have reflected back and finally received. So, when the signal from the far target is received, the signal from the near target will have the same signal strength because the transmitted signal has been reduced in power from the time the signal from the far target was transmitted to the time the signal from the near target was transmitted.

[0082] Another method for reducing a reflected RF signal's power level from a near target relative to a more distant target is to turn OFF the transmitter for some fraction of time, where the fraction of time is an increasing function of time. For example, for the first 0.1 μs, the transmitter is powered ON all the time, then for the second 0.1 μs, the transmitter is powered ON 90% of the time. The fraction of time the transmitter is powered ON continues to decrease so that by the time the reflected signal from a more distant target is arriving, the reflected signal from a nearby target has a duty factor that is quite small and thus creates relatively little interference. This is called pulsing.

[0083] An alternative to pulsing the transmitted RF signal to dynamically reduce the transmitted power level is to switch transmission frequencies in a manner that allows the RF signal reflected off the more distant object to be received even though a nearby target is also reflecting the transmitted signal. In this way, the transmitter is always transmitting, but at different frequencies. For example, the radar system may transmit on frequency f₁ for 2 μs and then after switching to a different frequency f₂, continue transmitting for another 2 μs. A receiver attempting to detect an object/target at 300 meters distance would listen on frequency f₁ during the second time interval from 2.167 μs until 4 μs. In this way, the RF signal received from a reflection off of the near target would be on a different frequency than the RF signal reflected off of the far target from time T=2.167 μs until T=4.0 μs. This method has the advantage of always transmitting (on some frequency), but with the disadvantage of needing to be able to transmit at two different frequencies and receive at two different frequencies. The bandwidth would be divided into at least two parts in this example.

Receiver Functionality with Pulsed PMCW Radar:

[0084] In an aspect of the present invention, a radar receiver 2300, illustrated in FIG. 23, comprises an RF front end 2302, an analog to digital converter (ADC) 2304, a digital signal processor (DSP) 2306, and a memory 2308. An exemplary RF signal is transmitted by a radar transmitter from a time T=0 to T=1.832 μs, and with a chip rate of 500 million chips per second. Each chip has a 2 ns duration. A transmission duration of 1.832 μs corresponds to 916 chips being transmitted. The delay of a reflection from an object at a distance of 25 meters is 0.166 μs (the time required for the transmitted RF signal to travel from the radar's transmitter, reflect off an object/target, and be received by the radar's receiver). This means that there are about 83 chips round trip for an object that is 25 meters away. While there are 500 chips round trip for an object that is 150 meters away, and 1000 chips round trip for an object that is 300 meters away. This means that the transmitter will have been turned OFF for 168 ns before a reflected RF signal from 300 meters is received. Additionally, the reflected RF signal from an object 25 meters away will have already been completely received by the time the reflected RF signal from the object at 300 meters is received. Therefore, a receiver which turns ON at 2 μs and turns OFF at 3.832 μs will be able to process all the chips from an object at 300 meters. However, an object that is 150 meters away will cause a reflected RF signal to be received at the receiver starting at 1 μs. Since the receiver turns ON at 2 μs, the receiver will only receive 416 chips of the reflected RF signal from an object at 150 meters. As such, the processing gain associated with nearer objects will be less than objects further away. Of course, the objects at a farther distance will result in reflected RF signals that are received with less power and will need more processing gain.

[0085] FIG. 24 illustrates a timing diagram for this scenario. Time traces are provided for targets at 25 (Ttr1), 150 (Ttr2), and 300 (Ttr3) meters. As illustrated in FIG. 24, the reflected RF signal (Ttr2) from the target at 150 meters is received at 1.0 μs, while the reflected RF signal (Ttr3) from the target at 300 meters is received at 2.0 μs. As also illustrated in FIG. 24, the RF signal is terminated at time T=1.832 μs with the last reflected RF signal (Ttr4) from the target at 25 meters received at 2.0 μs. FIG. 24 also illustrates that the second reflected RF signal (Ttr5) from the target at 150 meters is received between times 1 μs and 2.832 μs, while the third reflected RF signal (Ttr6) from the target at 300 meters is received between times 2 μs and 3.832 μs.

[0086] In an aspect of the invention, the receiver 2300 may comprise the digital processor 2306 illustrated in FIG. 23. The exemplary digital processor 2306 determines the correlations of the received RF signals (“x”) with the required spreading codes (“α”), and as illustrated in FIG. 25, may be implemented with several FFT operations, an IFFT operation, and a mixer. The output of the ADC 2304, when the receiver 2300 is ON, is used as an input to the FFT. As illustrated in FIGS. 25 and 26, the output from the ADC 2304 may be padded (appended) with an equal number of zeros (e.g., 916). Meanwhile, as also illustrated in FIGS. 25 and 26, a code generator that has generated 916 chips may be zero padded (prepended).

[0087] See FIGS. 25 and 26 for exemplary FFT inputs where the ADC output is padded (appended) and the code generator output is zero padded (prepended). An FFT is taken of each of these two zero-padded signals. A complex conjugate is then applied to the output of the FFT that receives the chips (“α”) from the code generator. The result is then mixed with the output of the FFT that receives the received signal (“x”). Then an inverse FFT (IFFT) is taken. The result is all of the correlations at the range bins between 25 and 300 meters. This output is then stored in memory 2308.

[0088] In an aspect of the present invention, exemplary targets are located at 25 meters, 150 meters, and 300 meters. There is an assumed propagation loss between the radar's transmitter and receiver that is proportional to distance to the fourth power. This corresponds to a power loss in each direction (radar transmitter to target and target to radar receiver) proportional to the distance squared (e.g., free space path loss). In this case, the propagation loss is 43.2 dB larger for the target at 300 meters when compared to the target at 25 meters. The propagation loss is 12.0 dB larger for the target at 300 meters when compared to the propagation loss for the target at 150 meters. So, even with a receiver that ignores all received signals before time T=2.0 μs, which will ignore the reflection from the object at 25 meters, there will be a signal from the reflection of the target at 150 meters that will be 12.0 dB larger (for the same RCS) than the reflected signal from the object at 300 meters.

[0089] Depending on the environment, an exemplary radar receiver could receive the reflected RF signal during a shortened time window and thus reduce the window of time that the receiver processes the received RF signal. The result is that the reflected RF signals from targets that are closer to the transceiver (receiver/transmitter) than the target of interest (e.g., the one at 300 meters) will be reduced in the effect they have on the correlations performed for a range bin at 300 meters. While this removes interference that is much larger than the reflected RF signal from the object at 300 meters, it also removes some of the desired RF signal. For some receiver windows, the target at 300 meters becomes detectable. This depends on the radar cross sections (RCSs) of the targets and their relative distances.

[0090] For example, consider an exemplary target at 150 meters and another exemplary target at 300 meters with a 10 dB smaller RCS. The received RF signal from the target at 300 meters will be 53.2 dB smaller than from the target at 150 meters. As such, the sidelobes of the correlation values corresponding to the target at 150 meters will be larger than the main peak of the correlation values corresponding to the target at 300 meters. FIG. 27 illustrates the magnitude of the correlation values when the received RF signal is evaluated starting at time, T=2.0 μs and continuing until T=3.832 μs. Then the receiver is turned OFF, ignoring the reflected signal until T=2.0 μs. There is no indication of the target at 300 meters in FIG. 27 because the RF signal reflecting from the target at 150 meters is dominating the RF signal reflecting from the target at 300 meters.

[0091] FIG. 28 illustrates normalized correlation values when the radar receiver evaluates the received RF signal from time T=2.5 μs to T=3.832 μs. The receiver ignores the received RF signal until T=2.5 μs. In FIG. 28 the radar receiver has ignored a large part of the much stronger reflected RF signal from the target at 150 meters. The receiver has also ignored some of the reflected RF signal from the target at 300 meters. However, since the RF signal reflecting from the target at 150 meters is much stronger than the RF signal reflecting from the target at 300 meters, there is an overall improvement in recognizing the target at 300 meters. FIG. 29 illustrates the normalized correlation output values when the receiver ignores the received RF signal till T=2.832 μs, which means the entire RF signal reflecting from the target at 150 meters is ignored. Now the target at 300 meters is clearly visible.

[0092] Changes and modifications in the specifically described embodiments can be carried out without departing from the principles of the present invention which is intended to be limited only by the scope of the appended claims, as interpreted according to the principles of patent law including the doctrine of equivalents.