4D millimeter wave radar antenna array and 4D millimeter wave radar

Abstract

The utility model discloses a 4D millimeter-wave radar antenna array and a 4D millimeter-wave radar, which are applied to the technical field of millimeter-wave radars, and a transmitting antenna array comprises a horizontal transmitting antenna sub-array distributed along the horizontal direction and a vertical transmitting antenna sub-array distributed along the vertical direction, the receiving antenna array comprises a horizontal receiving antenna sub-array distributed in the horizontal direction and a vertical receiving antenna sub-array distributed in the vertical direction, and virtual array elements are formed through the MIMO technology; a gap area is formed between the transmitting antenna array and the receiving antenna array, and an FMCW transceiver is arranged in the gap area. A virtual array element is formed based on a virtual aperture technology in a multi-input multi-output mode, and a transmitting antenna array and a receiving antenna array are arranged to be arrays extending in the horizontal direction and the vertical direction, so that the radar antenna array has high angular resolution in the horizontal direction and the vertical direction. The transceiver is arranged in the gap area, so that the space occupied by the antenna array can be effectively saved.

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD

[0001] The utility model relates to millimeter wave radar technical field especially relates to a 4D millimeter wave radar antenna array and a 4D millimeter wave radar. BACKGROUND

[0002] With the development of economy and the progress of science and technology, the car is increasingly popular, becomes the indispensable traffic tool of society. Although the popularity of car brings great convenience to people's production and life, but also leads to traffic accidents more frequent, inevitably brings huge economic loss and personnel casualty. Under this background, global major automobile manufacturers have invested in the research and development of vehicle auxiliary driving, automatic driving. Millimeter wave radar as an important member in the environmental perception unit of auxiliary driving, automatic driving car, plays a very important role.

[0003] The current mainstream millimeter wave radar still cannot measure height, horizontal angle resolution is low, cannot detect stationary objects and other limitations, so how to provide a 4D millimeter wave radar antenna array with high angle resolution in horizontal and vertical direction is the problem that the person skilled in the art needs to solve. UTILITY MODEL CONTENT

[0004] The utility model aims at providing a 4D millimeter wave radar antenna array, which has high angle resolution in horizontal and vertical directions. Another object of the utility model is to provide a 4D millimeter wave radar, which has high angle resolution in horizontal and vertical directions.

[0005] To solve the above technical problem, the utility model provides a 4D millimeter wave radar antenna array, which comprises a transmitting antenna array, a receiving antenna array and an FMCW transceiver.

[0006] The transmitting antenna array comprises a horizontal transmitting antenna subarray distributed along the horizontal direction and a vertical transmitting antenna subarray distributed along the vertical direction, and the receiving antenna array comprises a horizontal receiving antenna subarray distributed along the horizontal direction and a vertical receiving antenna subarray distributed along the vertical direction. A virtual element is formed by MIMO technology, which forms a horizontal linear array distributed along the horizontal direction and a vertical linear array distributed along the vertical direction.

[0007] A gap region is formed between the transmitting antenna array and the receiving antenna array, and the FMCW transceiver is arranged in the gap region. The transmitting elements and the receiving elements are connected to the FMCW transceiver through feed lines.

[0008] Optionally, the transmitting antenna array is provided with one horizontal transmitting antenna subarray and one vertical transmitting antenna subarray, the horizontal transmitting antenna subarray and the vertical transmitting antenna subarray have a common transmitting element, the common transmitting element is a transmitting element in the middle of the horizontal transmitting antenna subarray and a transmitting element at one end of the vertical transmitting antenna subarray.

[0009] Optionally, the receiving antenna array is provided with one horizontal receiving antenna subarray and one vertical receiving antenna subarray, the horizontal receiving antenna subarray and the vertical receiving antenna subarray have a common receiving element, the common receiving element is a receiving element at one end of the horizontal receiving antenna subarray and a receiving element at one end of the vertical receiving antenna subarray.

[0010] Optionally, the transmitting antenna array is located in a rectangular area defined by the half-enclosure of the receiving antenna array, the horizontal transmitting antenna subarray is arranged in parallel with the horizontal receiving antenna subarray, and the vertical transmitting antenna subarray extends from the horizontal transmitting antenna subarray in a direction away from the side of the horizontal receiving antenna subarray.

[0011] Optionally, the gap surrounded by the vertical transmitting antenna subarray, the vertical receiving antenna subarray, and the horizontal transmitting antenna subarray is a first gap, and at least one FMCW transceiver is arranged in the first gap.

[0012] The gap surrounded by the horizontal transmitting antenna subarray, the horizontal receiving antenna subarray, and the vertical receiving antenna subarray is a second gap, and at least two FMCW transceivers are arranged in the second gap.

[0013] Optionally, the transmitting antenna array includes 12 transmitting elements, the transmitting elements include one transmitting element in the first row and 11 transmitting elements in the second row, and the transmitting element in the first row is aligned with the eighth transmitting element in the second row by column.

[0014] Optionally, the transmitting element in the first row is spaced apart from the eighth transmitting element in the second row by 4.5 wavelengths, among the transmitting elements in the second row, the first transmitting element is spaced apart from the second transmitting element by 0.5 wavelengths, the second transmitting element is spaced apart from the third transmitting element by 1 wavelength, the third transmitting element is spaced apart from the fourth transmitting element by 1.5 wavelengths, the fourth transmitting element to the eighth transmitting element are spaced apart by 3.5 wavelengths, the eighth transmitting element is spaced apart from the ninth transmitting element by 2 wavelengths, the ninth transmitting element is spaced apart from the tenth transmitting element by 2 wavelengths, and the tenth transmitting element is spaced apart from the eleventh transmitting element by 0.5 wavelengths.

[0015] Optionally, the receiving antenna array comprises 16 receiving elements, the receiving elements comprise 10 receiving elements distributed along the horizontal direction and 6 receiving elements distributed along the vertical direction, the 10th receiving element arranged along the horizontal direction is aligned with the 6th receiving element arranged along the vertical direction in a column.

[0016] Optionally, the adjacent receiving elements distributed along the vertical direction are spaced apart by 3 wavelengths, and the 10th receiving element arranged along the horizontal direction and the 6th receiving element arranged along the vertical direction are spaced apart by 3 wavelengths.

[0017] Among the receiving elements arranged along the horizontal direction, the first receiving element and the second receiving element along the preset direction are spaced apart by 1.5 wavelengths, the second receiving element and the third receiving element are spaced apart by 1.5 wavelengths, the third receiving element and the fourth receiving element are spaced apart by 3 wavelengths, the fourth receiving element and the fifth receiving element are spaced apart by 3 wavelengths, the fifth receiving element and the sixth receiving element are spaced apart by 3.5 wavelengths, the sixth receiving element and the seventh receiving element are spaced apart by 1.5 wavelengths, the seventh receiving element and the eighth receiving element are spaced apart by 3.5 wavelengths, the eighth receiving element and the ninth receiving element are spaced apart by 5 wavelengths, and the ninth receiving element and the 10th receiving element are spaced apart by 3 wavelengths.

[0018] Optionally, the transmitting element is a microstrip antenna or a waveguide antenna, and the receiving element is a microstrip antenna or a waveguide antenna.

[0019] Optionally, the feed line is a substrate integrated waveguide, a waveguide or a microstrip line.

[0020] Optionally, the starting operating frequency of the transmitting element is 76GHz, the maximum bandwidth is 5GHz, and the usable frequency range is 76GHz-81GHz; the starting operating frequency of the receiving element is 76GHz, the maximum bandwidth is 5GHz, and the usable frequency range is 76GHz-81GHz.

[0021] The utility model further provides a 4D millimeter wave radar, including 4D millimeter wave radar antenna array as any above mentioned.

[0022] The utility model provides a kind of 4D millimeter wave radar antenna array, including transmitting antenna array, receiving antenna array and FMCW transceiver, transmitting antenna array includes multiple transmitting elements, and receiving antenna array includes multiple receiving elements;Transmitting antenna array includes horizontally distributed horizontal transmitting antenna subarray along horizontal direction and vertically distributed vertical transmitting antenna subarray along vertical direction, and receiving antenna array includes horizontally distributed horizontal receiving antenna subarray along horizontal direction and vertically distributed vertical receiving antenna subarray along vertical direction, virtual element is formed by MIMO technology, and virtual element forms horizontal linear array along horizontal direction, and vertical linear array along vertical direction;Gap region is formed between transmitting antenna array and receiving antenna array, and gap region is provided with FMCW transceiver, and transmitting element and receiving element are connected with FMCW transceiver by feed line.

[0023] Virtual element is formed based on virtual aperture technology under multiple-transmitting and multiple-receiving mode, and transmitting antenna array and receiving antenna array are arranged as array extending along horizontal and vertical two directions, so that horizontal linear array along horizontal direction and vertical linear array along vertical direction can be formed in virtual element, so that linear array with more virtual elements is formed along horizontal direction and vertical direction, so that 4D millimeter wave radar antenna array has higher angular resolution along horizontal and vertical directions.And FMCW (Frequency Modulated Continuous Wave, Frequency Modulated Continuous Wave) transceiver is arranged in the gap region between transmitting antenna array and receiving antenna array, so that the space occupied by 4D millimeter wave radar antenna array can be effectively saved, and the miniaturization of 4D millimeter wave radar antenna array is facilitated.

[0024] The utility model also provides a kind of 4D millimeter wave radar, also has the above beneficial effect, here no longer be described. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

[0025] To more clearly illustrate the technical scheme of the embodiments of the utility model or prior art, the drawings needed to be used in the following embodiment or prior art description will be simply introduced, and obviously, the drawings in the following description are only some embodiments of the utility model, and for those skilled in the art, other drawings can be obtained according to these drawings without creative labor.

[0026] Figure 1 The structure schematic diagram of a kind of 4D millimeter wave radar antenna array provided by the utility model embodiment;

[0027] Figure 2 The schematic diagram of the virtual element formed by the transmitting element time-sharing emission of the utility model embodiment;

[0028] Figure 3It is a virtual array element schematic diagram formed by all the transmitting array elements of the embodiment of the utility model.

[0029] In the figure: 1. transmitting antenna array, 11. horizontal transmitting antenna subarray, 12. vertical transmitting antenna subarray, 2. receiving antenna array, 21. horizontal receiving antenna subarray, 22. vertical receiving antenna subarray, 31. horizontal linear array, 32. vertical linear array, 33. subarray, 4. FMCW transceiver. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0030] The core of the utility model is to provide a kind of 4D millimeter wave radar antenna array.In prior art, current mainstream millimeter wave radar still has the limitation such as unable to measure height, low horizontal angle resolution, cannot detect stationary objects.

[0031] And a kind of 4D millimeter wave radar antenna array provided by the utility model, including transmitting antenna array, receiving antenna array and FMCW transceiver, transmitting antenna array includes multiple transmitting array elements, and receiving antenna array includes multiple receiving array elements;Transmitting antenna array includes horizontal transmitting antenna subarray distributed along horizontal direction and vertical transmitting antenna subarray distributed along vertical direction, and receiving antenna array includes horizontal receiving antenna subarray distributed along horizontal direction and vertical receiving antenna subarray distributed along vertical direction, virtual array element is formed by MIMO technology, virtual array element forms horizontal linear array distributed along horizontal direction and vertical linear array distributed along vertical direction;Gap region is formed between transmitting antenna array and receiving antenna array, and FMCW transceiver is arranged in gap region, and transmitting array element and receiving array element are connected with FMCW transceiver by feed line.

[0032] Virtual aperture technology under the mode of multiple transmitting and multiple receiving forms virtual array element, transmitting antenna array and receiving antenna array are arranged as array extending along horizontal and vertical two directions, horizontal linear array distributed along horizontal direction and vertical linear array distributed along vertical direction can be formed in virtual array element, so as to ensure that linear array with more virtual array elements is formed in horizontal direction and vertical direction, so that 4D millimeter wave radar antenna array has higher angle resolution in horizontal and vertical directions.And FMCW transceiver is arranged in the gap region between transmitting antenna array and receiving antenna array, so that the space occupied by 4D millimeter wave radar antenna array can be effectively saved, which is beneficial to the miniaturization of 4D millimeter wave radar antenna array.

[0033] In order to make the person skilled in the art better understand the technical scheme of the present application, the present application will be further described in detail below in conjunction with the drawings and specific embodiments. Obviously, the described embodiments are only part of the embodiments of the present application, not all. Based on the embodiments in the present application, all other embodiments obtained by those skilled in the art without creative labor are within the scope of protection of the present application.

[0034] Embodiment one

[0035] Please refer to Figure 1 , Figure 1 The structure schematic diagram of a 4D millimeter wave radar antenna array provided by the embodiment of the present application.

[0036] Referring to Figure 1 In the embodiment of the present application, the 4D millimeter wave radar antenna array comprises a transmitting antenna array 1, a receiving antenna array 2 and an FMCW transceiver 4, the transmitting antenna array 1 comprises a plurality of transmitting elements, and the receiving antenna array 2 comprises a plurality of receiving elements; the transmitting antenna array 1 comprises a horizontal transmitting antenna subarray 11 distributed along a horizontal direction and a vertical transmitting antenna subarray 12 distributed along a vertical direction, and the receiving antenna array 2 comprises a horizontal receiving antenna subarray 21 distributed along the horizontal direction and a vertical receiving antenna subarray 22 distributed along the vertical direction, a virtual element is formed through MIMO technology, the virtual element forms a horizontal linear array 31 distributed along the horizontal direction and a vertical linear array 32 distributed along the vertical direction; a gap region is formed between the transmitting antenna array 1 and the receiving antenna array 2, the gap region is provided with the FMCW transceiver 4, and the transmitting elements and the receiving elements are connected with the FMCW transceiver 4 through feed lines.

[0037] In the embodiment, the antenna array comprises a transmitting antenna array 1 and a receiving antenna array 2, which can be arranged in the same plate. The unit constituting the transmitting antenna array 1 is a transmitting element, and the unit constituting the receiving antenna array 2 is a receiving element. In the embodiment, the transmitting element transmits millimeter waves to a target object, and the receiving element receives the echo reflected by the target object. In the embodiment, the transmitting antenna array 1 and the receiving antenna array 2 transmit and receive signals based on the virtual aperture technology in the Mutiple Input Mutiple Out (MIMO) mode, that is, a virtual element is formed through MIMO technology. Obviously, in the embodiment, the arrangement mode of the virtual element is related to the arrangement modes of the transmitting element and the receiving element.

[0038] In the embodiment, the transmitting antenna array 1 comprises horizontal transmitting antenna sub-arrays 11 distributed along the horizontal direction and vertical transmitting antenna sub-arrays 12 distributed along the vertical direction, so that the transmitting antenna array 1 forms an array structure extending in both the horizontal direction and the vertical direction. Correspondingly, in the embodiment, the receiving antenna array 2 comprises horizontal receiving antenna sub-arrays 21 distributed along the horizontal direction and vertical receiving antenna sub-arrays 22 distributed along the vertical direction, so that the receiving antenna array 2 also forms an array structure extending in both the horizontal direction and the vertical direction. In combination with the virtual aperture technology in the multi-transmitting and multi-receiving mode, a horizontal linear array 31 and a vertical linear array 32 can be formed, in which the virtual elements are distributed along the horizontal direction and the vertical direction, respectively. The horizontal linear array 31 can provide the millimeter wave radar antenna array with high angular resolution in the horizontal direction, and the vertical linear array 32 can provide the millimeter wave radar antenna array with high angular resolution in the vertical direction, thereby forming a 4D millimeter wave radar antenna array.

[0039] Specifically, in the embodiment, any receiving element receives the echoes of the millimeter waves emitted by all the transmitting elements and reflected by the target object, so that the virtual elements are formed in a sub-array 33 outside the horizontal linear array 31 and the vertical linear array 32. That is, in the embodiment, the echoes of the millimeter waves emitted by one transmitting element are received by all the receiving elements, thereby forming a corresponding virtual element. In this process, the echoes of the millimeter waves emitted by each transmitting element in the horizontal transmitting antenna sub-array 11 are received by each receiving element in the horizontal receiving antenna sub-array 21, thereby forming the virtual elements of the horizontal linear array 31. The echoes of the millimeter waves emitted by each transmitting element in the vertical transmitting antenna sub-array 12 are received by each receiving element in the vertical receiving antenna sub-array 22, thereby forming the virtual elements of the vertical linear array 32. Obviously, in the virtual element distribution diagram, the virtual elements in the regions of the horizontal linear array 31 and the vertical linear array 32 have a higher distribution density than the virtual elements in other regions.

[0040] In the embodiment, the virtual elements in the virtual element distribution diagram other than the horizontal linear array 31 and the vertical linear array 32 form a subarray 33, which includes virtual elements formed by millimeter waves emitted by each of the horizontal transmitting antenna elements in the horizontal transmitting antenna subarray 11 and received by each of the vertical receiving antenna elements in the vertical receiving antenna subarray 22, and virtual elements formed by millimeter waves emitted by each of the vertical transmitting antenna elements in the vertical transmitting antenna subarray 12 and received by each of the horizontal receiving antenna elements in the horizontal receiving antenna subarray 21. In common terms, the horizontal transmitting and horizontal receiving in the antenna array form the horizontal linear array 31, the vertical transmitting and vertical receiving form the vertical linear array 32, and the virtual elements formed in addition to the two linear arrays form the subarray 33, which includes virtual elements formed by horizontal transmitting and vertical receiving and virtual elements formed by vertical transmitting and horizontal receiving. In the embodiment, the two independent linear arrays formed in the azimuth and elevation by the horizontal linear array 31 and the vertical linear array 32 can be used to estimate the azimuth angle and the elevation angle, and the two-dimensional angle information of the target can be estimated by matching the subarray 33 other than the two linear arrays. The specific calculation process of matching by the subarray 33 and the specific calculation process of estimating the azimuth angle and the elevation angle by the linear arrays can be referred to the prior art, and will not be described here.

[0041] Generally, in the embodiment, the transmitting antenna array 1 is provided with only one horizontal transmitting antenna subarray 11 and one vertical transmitting antenna subarray 12, and / or the receiving antenna array 2 is provided with only one horizontal receiving antenna subarray 21 and one vertical receiving antenna subarray 22. The transmitting antenna array 1 and the receiving antenna array 2 of the structure can effectively simplify the structure of the transmitting antenna array 1 and the receiving antenna array 2 while ensuring that the horizontal linear array 31 and the vertical linear array 32 with sufficient angular resolution are formed. Of course, in the embodiment, the number of each antenna subarray is not specifically limited, and can be two, three or more, etc., depending on the specific situation.

[0042] On this basis, in order to ensure that the 4D millimeter wave radar antenna array has sufficient angular resolution in the elevation, the transmitting antenna array 1 can be arranged in an L shape or a T shape, and the receiving antenna array 2 can be arranged in an L shape or a T shape. Of course, in the embodiment, the transmitting antenna array 1 and the receiving antenna array 2 can also have other shapes, such as a cross shape, etc., which are not specifically limited here.

[0043] In the embodiment, in order to further increase the number of virtual elements, the horizontal transmitting antenna subarray 11 and the vertical transmitting antenna subarray 12 can have shared transmitting elements, and the horizontal receiving antenna subarray 21 and the vertical receiving antenna subarray 22 can have shared receiving elements. The shared transmitting elements can be used as transmitting elements in the horizontal transmitting antenna subarray 11 and as transmitting elements at one end of the vertical transmitting antenna subarray 12, and the shared receiving elements can be used as receiving elements at one end of the horizontal receiving antenna subarray 21 and as receiving elements at one end of the vertical receiving antenna subarray 22. At this time, the transmitting antenna array 1 as a whole can have a T-shaped or inverted T-shaped structure, and the transmitting antenna array 1 at this time has only one shared transmitting element. Correspondingly, in the embodiment, the horizontal receiving antenna subarray 21 and the vertical receiving antenna subarray 22 have shared receiving elements, which are used as receiving elements at one end of the horizontal receiving antenna subarray 21 and as receiving elements at one end of the vertical receiving antenna subarray 22. At this time, the receiving antenna array 2 as a whole can have an L-shaped structure, and the receiving antenna array 2 at this time has only one shared receiving element.

[0044] Specifically, in the embodiment, the horizontal transmitting antenna subarray 11 and the vertical transmitting antenna subarray 12 have shared transmitting elements, which are used as transmitting elements in the middle of the horizontal transmitting antenna subarray 11 and as transmitting elements at one end of the vertical transmitting antenna subarray 12. At this time, the transmitting antenna array 1 as a whole can have a T-shaped or inverted T-shaped structure, and the transmitting antenna array 1 at this time has only one shared transmitting element. Correspondingly, in the embodiment, the horizontal receiving antenna subarray 21 and the vertical receiving antenna subarray 22 have shared receiving elements, which are used as receiving elements at one end of the horizontal receiving antenna subarray 21 and as receiving elements at one end of the vertical receiving antenna subarray 22. At this time, the receiving antenna array 2 as a whole can have an L-shaped structure, and the receiving antenna array 2 at this time has only one shared receiving element.

[0045] In the embodiment, the transmitting antenna array 1 is located in a rectangular region defined by the half-enclosing structure of the receiving antenna array 2, the horizontal transmitting antenna subarray 11 and the horizontal receiving antenna subarray 21 are arranged in parallel, and the vertical transmitting antenna subarray 12 extends from the horizontal transmitting antenna subarray 11 in a direction away from the side of the horizontal receiving antenna subarray 21. For the receiving antenna array 2 with an L-shaped structure, it corresponds to a half-enclosing structure of a rectangular region, and therefore the receiving antenna array 2 with an L-shaped structure can define a rectangular region based on the half-enclosing structure. In order to reduce the space occupied by the 4D millimeter wave radar antenna array, the transmitting antenna array 1 can be arranged in the rectangular region defined by the receiving antenna array 2. Further, in the structure, the horizontal transmitting antenna subarray 11 and the horizontal receiving antenna subarray 21 can be arranged in parallel, and the vertical transmitting antenna subarray 12 can extend from the horizontal transmitting antenna subarray 11 in a direction away from the side of the horizontal receiving antenna subarray 21, so as to facilitate the arrangement of the vertical transmitting antenna subarray 12.

[0046] At this time, in the present embodiment, there are two gaps between the transmitting antenna array 1 and the receiving antenna array 2, wherein the gap surrounded by the vertical transmitting antenna subarray 12, the vertical receiving antenna subarray 22 and the horizontal transmitting antenna subarray 11 as the three edges is the first gap, and at least one FMCW transceiver 4 is arranged in the first gap; and the gap surrounded by the horizontal transmitting antenna subarray 11, the horizontal receiving antenna subarray 21 and the vertical receiving antenna subarray 22 as the three edges is the second gap, and at least two FMCW transceivers 4 are usually arranged in the second gap.

[0047] Since the scanning range requirement of the 4D millimeter wave radar antenna array in the horizontal direction is much larger than that in the vertical direction, the length of the horizontal antenna subarray is larger than that of the vertical antenna subarray, and thus the area of the second gap is larger than that of the first gap. In the present embodiment, only one FMCW transceiver 4 is arranged in the first gap, and the FMCW transceiver 4 in the first gap usually needs to be connected to the transmitting elements in the vertical transmitting antenna subarray 12, the adjacent partial transmitting elements in the horizontal transmitting antenna subarray 11, and the adjacent partial receiving elements in the vertical receiving antenna subarray 22 through a feed line. In the second gap, at least two FMCW transceivers 4 are usually arranged, and the FMCW transceivers 4 in the second gap are usually distributed along the horizontal direction. The FMCW transceivers 4 in the second gap usually need to be connected to the transmitting elements in the horizontal transmitting antenna subarray 11, the transmitting elements in the horizontal receiving antenna subarray 21, and the adjacent partial receiving elements in the vertical receiving antenna subarray 22 through a feed line. The specific corresponding connection relationship between the FMCW transceiver 4 and each transmitting element and receiving element can be set according to actual conditions, and is not specifically limited herein.

[0048] In the present embodiment, the feed line can be any one of a substrate integrated waveguide (SIW), a waveguide or a microstrip line, and the specific structure of the feed line can be set according to actual conditions, and is not specifically limited herein. It should be emphasized that in the present embodiment, the transmitting antenna array 1 and the receiving antenna array 2 are position-independent antenna arrays, that is, the relative position relationship between the transmitting antenna array 1 and the receiving antenna array 2 can be arbitrarily set, and can be selected according to actual installation conditions, and is not specifically limited herein.

[0049] The 4D millimeter wave radar antenna array provided by the embodiment of the utility model, based on the virtual aperture technology under the mode of multiple sending and receiving forms virtual array elements, sets the transmitting antenna array 1 and the receiving antenna array 2 as extending along the horizontal and vertical directions, can form the horizontal linear array 31 distributed along the horizontal direction and the vertical linear array 32 distributed along the vertical direction in the virtual array element, thereby ensuring that the linear array with more virtual array elements is formed in the horizontal direction and the vertical direction, so that the 4D millimeter wave radar antenna array has higher angular resolution in the horizontal and vertical directions. And the FMCW transceiver 4 is set in the gap region between the transmitting antenna array 1 and the receiving antenna array 2, which can effectively save the space occupied by the 4D millimeter wave radar antenna array, and is beneficial to the miniaturization of the 4D millimeter wave radar antenna array.

[0050] The specific content of the 4D millimeter wave radar antenna array provided by the utility model will be described in detail in the following utility model embodiment.

[0051] Embodiment two

[0052] Please refer to Figure 2 And Figure 3 , Figure 2 is the virtual array element schematic diagram formed by the time-sharing transmission of all the transmitting array elements of the embodiment of the utility model. Figure 3 is the virtual array element schematic diagram formed by the time-sharing transmission of all the transmitting array elements of the embodiment of the utility model.

[0053] The direction represented by the row is the horizontal direction, and the direction represented by the column is the vertical direction. In the embodiment of the utility model, the transmitting antenna array 1 includes 12 transmitting array elements TX1-TX12, the transmitting array elements include one transmitting array element located in the first row and 11 transmitting array elements located in the second row, and the transmitting array element located in the first row is aligned with the eighth transmitting array element located in the second row by column. Correspondingly, in the embodiment, the receiving antenna array 2 includes 16 receiving array elements RX1-RX16, the receiving array elements include 10 receiving array elements distributed along the horizontal direction and 6 receiving array elements distributed along the vertical direction, and the tenth receiving array element arranged along the horizontal direction is aligned with the sixth receiving array element arranged along the vertical direction by column.

[0054] For the transmit antenna array 1, the transmit elements TX1 and TX8 are arranged in a column, i.e., along the vertical direction; and the transmit elements TX2-TX12 are arranged in a row, i.e., along the horizontal direction, wherein the transmit element TX8 is a shared transmit element. The above-mentioned row and column are perpendicular to each other, forming a reversed "T"-shaped transmit antenna array 1. The receive elements are divided into two groups, the receive elements RX1-RX10 are arranged in a row, and the receive elements RX10-RX16 are arranged in a column, the row arrangement group and the column arrangement group are perpendicular to each other, forming a reversed "L"-shaped, wherein the receive element RX10 is shared by the row and the column. At this time, the virtual elements formed by the above-mentioned structure of the transmit antenna array 1 and the receive antenna array 2 can form independent linear arrays in azimuth and elevation, and can perform azimuth angle and elevation angle estimation, and then use the subarray 33 outside the linear array to perform pairing to estimate the two-dimensional angle information of the target. The relative positions between all transmit elements and receive elements are independent of each other, i.e., the position relationship between all transmit elements and receive elements does not need to be restricted to each other under the premise of maintaining the above-mentioned relative position relationship, and the angle resolution of the 4D millimeter wave radar antenna array provided in the embodiment can be achieved. The specific 12-transmit 16-receive 4D millimeter wave radar MIMO antenna array provided in the embodiment uses a smaller array size to achieve extremely high azimuth angle and elevation angle resolution. It can be widely used in many assisted driving scenarios such as adaptive cruise control (ACC), automatic emergency braking (AEB), blind area monitoring (BSD), lane change assistance (LCA), and reverse collision warning (RCTA) in the automotive field, and higher-order automatic driving scenarios, regional monitoring and road detection in non-automotive fields.

[0055] Specifically, for the transmit antenna array 1, in the embodiment, the transmit elements located in the first row are spaced apart from the eighth transmit element located in the second row by 4.5 wavelengths; among the transmit elements located in the second row, the first transmit element is spaced apart from the second transmit element by 0.5 wavelengths along the preset direction, the second transmit element is spaced apart from the third transmit element by 1 wavelength, the third transmit element is spaced apart from the fourth transmit element by 1.5 wavelengths, the fourth transmit element to the eighth transmit element are equally spaced apart by 3.5 wavelengths, the eighth transmit element is spaced apart from the ninth transmit element by 2 wavelengths, the ninth transmit element is spaced apart from the tenth transmit element by 2 wavelengths, and the tenth transmit element is spaced apart from the eleventh transmit element by 0.5 wavelengths.

[0056] In the embodiment, the transmitting elements are arranged in two rows, the first row TX1 is aligned with the TX8 of the second row. TX1 and TX8 are spaced by 4.5 wavelengths. In the second row, TX2 and TX3 are spaced by 0.5 wavelength, TX3 and TX4 are spaced by 1 wavelength, TX4 and TX5 are spaced by 1.5 wavelengths, TX5 and TX6, TX6 and TX7, TX7 and TX8, TX8 and TX9 are spaced by 3.5 wavelengths, TX9 and TX10, TX10 and TX11 are spaced by 2 wavelengths, TX11 and TX12 are spaced by 0.5 wavelength.

[0057] Correspondingly, for the receiving antenna array 2, in the embodiment, the adjacent receiving elements distributed along the vertical direction are spaced by 3 wavelengths, and the 10th receiving element arranged along the horizontal direction and the 6th receiving element arranged along the vertical direction are spaced by 3 wavelengths; among the receiving elements arranged along the horizontal direction, the first receiving element and the second receiving element along the preset direction are spaced by 1.5 wavelengths, the second receiving element and the third receiving element are spaced by 1.5 wavelengths, the third receiving element and the fourth receiving element are spaced by 3 wavelengths, the fourth receiving element and the fifth receiving element are spaced by 3 wavelengths, the fifth receiving element and the sixth receiving element are spaced by 3.5 wavelengths, the sixth receiving element and the seventh receiving element are spaced by 1.5 wavelengths, the seventh receiving element and the eighth receiving element are spaced by 3.5 wavelengths, the eighth receiving element and the ninth receiving element are spaced by 5 wavelengths, and the ninth receiving element and the 10th receiving element are spaced by 3 wavelengths.

[0058] In the embodiment, the receiving elements are divided into two groups by rows and columns. The row arrangement group RX1 and RX2 are spaced by 1.5 wavelengths, RX2 and RX3 are spaced by 1.5 wavelengths, RX3 and RX4 are spaced by 3 wavelengths, RX4 and RX5 are spaced by 3 wavelengths, RX5 and RX6 are spaced by 3.5 wavelengths, RX6 and RX7 are spaced by 1.5 wavelengths, RX7 and RX8 are spaced by 3.5 wavelengths, RX8 and RX9 are spaced by 5 wavelengths, and RX9 and RX10 are spaced by 3 wavelengths. The column arrangement group RX10-RX16 are spaced by 3 wavelengths.

[0059] In the embodiment, the transmitting array elements can be microstrip antennas or waveguide antennas, and the receiving array elements can be microstrip antennas or waveguide antennas. The starting operating frequency of the transmitting array elements is 76 GHz, the maximum bandwidth is 5 GHz, and the usable frequency range is 76 GHz-81 GHz; the starting operating frequency of the receiving array elements is 76 GHz, the maximum bandwidth is 5 GHz, and the usable frequency range is 76 GHz-81 GHz. The operating mode of the transmitting array elements and the receiving array elements is one of time division multiplexing (TDMA), frequency division multiplexing (FDMA), Doppler division multiplexing (DDMA), or code division multiplexing (CDMA). Of course, the transmitting method can achieve the effect of generating a virtual aperture through demodulation of signals at the receiving end, and the antenna array designed in the embodiment can be applied. It should be noted that the wavelength in the embodiment is any wavelength corresponding to the usable frequency range of the millimeter wave radar according to the millimeter wave radar industry standard. The usable frequency range is usually 76 GHz-81 GHz.

[0060] Referring to Figure 3 In the embodiment, the antenna array with the above structure is taken as an example of a MIMO radar with time division multiplexing (i.e., the transmitting array elements transmit at different times, and all the receiving array elements receive at the same time), and the virtual array elements formed thereby are as shown in Figure 3 The generation principle is as shown in Figure 2 It should be noted that Figure 2 The above is only used to illustrate the virtual process and is irrelevant to the actual array element spacing. In the application, the transmission of the two transmitting array elements generates two groups of virtual array elements, and the relative positions of the virtual array elements in the groups do not change. Similarly, when all the transmitting antennas in the transmitting array elements transmit at different times, the effect of the entire virtual array element array is as shown in the accompanying Figure 3 The positions of the array elements marked with "×" in the lowermost row overlap, and the application has a total of 40 overlapping virtual array elements. The total number of virtual array elements that can be generated by the 12 transmitting array elements and the 16 receiving array elements is 12x16=192, and 40 overlapping virtual array elements are subtracted, so that the total number of virtual array elements is 152. The virtual array elements form independent linear arrays in the azimuth and elevation directions to estimate the azimuth and elevation angles, and the two-dimensional angle information of the target is estimated through the pairing of the subarrays 33.

[0061] Of course, in the embodiment, the above features and embodiments can be modified according to actual conditions, such as increasing or decreasing the number of receiving and transmitting array elements in the azimuth or elevation direction, changing the array element positions to adapt to specific conditions and materials, which all belong to the protection scope of the application.

[0062] Embodiment Three

[0063] The embodiment also provides a 4D millimeter wave radar, which comprises the 4D millimeter wave radar antenna array provided in any of the utility model embodiments.

[0064] The 4D millimeter wave radar provided in the embodiment has high angular resolution in the azimuth and elevation directions, and the 4D millimeter wave radar antenna array has small overall occupied space and high integration, so that the 4D millimeter wave radar is small in size.

[0065] The embodiments in the specification are described in a progressive manner, and each embodiment focuses on the difference from other embodiments, and the same or similar parts of each embodiment can be referred to each other.

[0066] Finally, it should be noted that, in this document, the relationship terms such as first and second are only used to distinguish one entity or operation from another entity or operation, and do not necessarily require or imply that there is any such actual relationship or order between the entities or operations. Moreover, the terms "include", "contain" or any other variants thereof are intended to cover non-exclusive inclusion, so that the process, method, article or equipment including a series of elements not only includes those elements, but also includes other elements not explicitly listed or inherent to such process, method, article or equipment. Without more limitations, the element defined by the statement "including a" does not exclude the presence of another identical element in the process, method, article or equipment including the element.

[0067] The 4D millimeter wave radar antenna array and the 4D millimeter wave radar provided in the utility model are described in detail above. The principle and implementation mode of the utility model are described by applying specific examples in this document, and the description of the above embodiments is only used to help understand the method and core idea of the utility model. It should be pointed out that, for ordinary skilled persons in the technical field, some improvements and modifications can be made to the utility model without departing from the principle of the utility model, and these improvements and modifications also fall within the protection scope of the utility model claims.

Claims

1. A 4D mmWave radar antenna array, characterized by, The radar device comprises a transmitting antenna array (1), a receiving antenna array (2) and an FMCW transceiver (4), the transmitting antenna array (1) comprises a plurality of transmitting elements, and the receiving antenna array (2) comprises a plurality of receiving elements; The transmitting antenna array (1) comprises a horizontal transmitting antenna subarray (11) distributed along a horizontal direction and a vertical transmitting antenna subarray (12) distributed along a vertical direction, and the receiving antenna array (2) comprises a horizontal receiving antenna subarray (21) distributed along the horizontal direction and a vertical receiving antenna subarray (22) distributed along the vertical direction, a virtual element is formed by a MIMO technology, and the virtual element forms a horizontal linear array (31) distributed along the horizontal direction and a vertical linear array (32) distributed along the vertical direction; A gap region is formed between the transmitting antenna array (1) and the receiving antenna array (2), and the gap region is provided with the FMCW transceiver (4), and the transmitting elements and the receiving elements are connected to the FMCW transceiver (4) through feed lines.

2. The 4D mmWave radar antenna array of claim 1, wherein, The transmitting antenna array (1) is provided with one horizontal transmitting antenna subarray (11) and one vertical transmitting antenna subarray (12), the horizontal transmitting antenna subarray (11) and the vertical transmitting antenna subarray (12) have shared transmitting elements, and the shared transmitting elements are used as the transmitting elements in the middle of the horizontal transmitting antenna subarray (11) and the transmitting elements at one end of the vertical transmitting antenna subarray (12); And / or, the receiving antenna array (2) is provided with one horizontal receiving antenna subarray (21) and one vertical receiving antenna subarray (22), the horizontal receiving antenna subarray (21) and the vertical receiving antenna subarray (22) have shared receiving elements, and the shared receiving elements are used as the receiving elements at one end of the horizontal receiving antenna subarray (21) and the receiving elements at one end of the vertical receiving antenna subarray (22).

3. The 4D mmWave radar antenna array of claim 2, wherein, The transmitting antenna array (1) is located in a rectangular region defined by the half-enclosure of the receiving antenna array (2), the horizontal transmitting antenna subarray (11) is arranged in parallel with the horizontal receiving antenna subarray (21), and the vertical transmitting antenna subarray (12) extends from the horizontal transmitting antenna subarray (11) in a direction away from the side of the horizontal receiving antenna subarray (21).

4. The 4D mmWave radar antenna array of claim 3, wherein, A first gap is formed by the vertical transmitting antenna subarray (12), the vertical receiving antenna subarray (22) and the horizontal transmitting antenna subarray (11), and at least one FMCW transceiver (4) is arranged in the first gap; A second gap is formed by the horizontal transmitting antenna subarray (11), the horizontal receiving antenna subarray (21) and the vertical receiving antenna subarray (22), and at least two FMCW transceivers (4) are arranged in the second gap.

5. The 4D mmWave radar antenna array of claim 4, wherein, The transmitting antenna array (1) comprises 12 transmitting elements, the transmitting elements comprise 1 transmitting element in the first row and 11 transmitting elements in the second row, the transmitting element in the first row is aligned with the eighth transmitting element in the second row in column.

6. The 4D mmWave radar antenna array of claim 5, wherein, The transmitting element in the first row is spaced apart from the eighth transmitting element in the second row by 4.5 wavelengths; among the transmitting elements in the second row, the first transmitting element is spaced apart from the second transmitting element by 0.5 wavelengths, the second transmitting element is spaced apart from the third transmitting element by 1 wavelength, the third transmitting element is spaced apart from the fourth transmitting element by 1.5 wavelengths, the fourth transmitting element to the eighth transmitting element are equally spaced apart by 3.5 wavelengths, the eighth transmitting element is spaced apart from the ninth transmitting element by 2 wavelengths, the ninth transmitting element is spaced apart from the tenth transmitting element by 2 wavelengths, and the tenth transmitting element is spaced apart from the eleventh transmitting element by 0.5 wavelengths.

7. The 4D mmWave radar antenna array of claim 4, wherein, The receiving antenna array (2) comprises 16 receiving elements, the receiving elements comprise 10 receiving elements distributed along the horizontal direction and 6 receiving elements distributed along the vertical direction, the tenth receiving element arranged along the horizontal direction is aligned with the sixth receiving element arranged along the vertical direction in column.

8. The 4D mmWave radar antenna array of claim 7, wherein, The adjacent receiving elements distributed along the vertical direction, and the tenth receiving element arranged along the horizontal direction and the sixth receiving element arranged along the vertical direction are equally spaced apart by 3 wavelengths; Among the receiving elements arranged along the horizontal direction, the first receiving element is spaced apart from the second receiving element by 1.5 wavelengths, the second receiving element is spaced apart from the third receiving element by 1.5 wavelengths, the third receiving element is spaced apart from the fourth receiving element by 3 wavelengths, the fourth receiving element is spaced apart from the fifth receiving element by 3 wavelengths, the fifth receiving element is spaced apart from the sixth receiving element by 3.5 wavelengths, the sixth receiving element is spaced apart from the seventh receiving element by 1.5 wavelengths, the seventh receiving element is spaced apart from the eighth receiving element by 3.5 wavelengths, the eighth receiving element is spaced apart from the ninth receiving element by 5 wavelengths, and the ninth receiving element is spaced apart from the tenth receiving element by 3 wavelengths.

9. The 4D mmWave radar antenna array of claim 1, wherein, The transmitting elements are microstrip antennas or waveguide antennas, and the receiving elements are microstrip antennas or waveguide antennas.

10. The 4D mmWave radar antenna array of claim 1, wherein, The feed line is a substrate integrated waveguide, a waveguide or a microstrip line.

11. The 4D mmWave radar antenna array of claim 1, wherein, The starting operating frequency of the transmitting elements is 76 GHz, the maximum bandwidth is 5 GHz, and the usable frequency range is 76 GHz-81 GHz; the starting operating frequency of the receiving elements is 76 GHz, the maximum bandwidth is 5 GHz, and the usable frequency range is 76 GHz-81 GHz.

12. A 4D millimeter wave radar characterized by, The 4D millimeter wave radar antenna array comprises the 4D millimeter wave radar antenna array according to any one of claims 1 to 11.

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