Calibration links, signal transmission links, integrated circuits, electromagnetic wave devices and apparatus

Abstract

The invention relates to a calibration link, a signal transmission link, an integrated circuit, an electromagnetic wave device, and an apparatus. The signal transmission main path is used to transmit electromagnetic wave signals, the calibration link is integrated into the integrated circuit including the signal transmission main path, the calibration link is connected at least between the signal transmission main path and an antenna corresponding to the signal transmission main path, the calibration link is configured to calibrate the signal transmission main path to obtain calibration information, the signal transmission main path is configured to perform calibration operations based on the calibration information obtained by the calibration link, and the calibrated signal transmission main path transmits electromagnetic wave signals.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] This application claims the priority of a Chinese patent application filed with the China National Intellectual Property Administration on June 14, 2023, with an application number of 202310702586.5 and an invention title of "Signal Transmission, Calibration, Compensation, and Transceiver Link, IQ Mixer, Integrated Circuit, Sensor, and Device", and the priority of a Chinese patent application filed with the China National Intellectual Property Administration on December 31, 2023, with an application number of 202311873028.1 and an invention title of "Calibration Link, Signal Reception Link, Electromagnetic Wave Device, and Integrated Circuit", the content of which should be understood to be incorporated herein by reference.

[0002] Embodiments of the present disclosure relate to the technical field of electromagnetic wave devices, but are not limited thereto, and particularly relate to calibration links, signal transmission links, integrated circuits, electromagnetic wave devices, and apparatuses.

Background Art

[0003] In a Frequency Modulated Continuous Wave (FMCW) radar, the distance of a target can be calculated by using the frequency difference between a transmitted signal and an echo signal. The farther the distance of the target, the greater the frequency of the corresponding intermediate frequency signal. The closer the distance of the target, the smaller the frequency of the corresponding difference frequency signal. After receiving a plurality of consecutive pulse signals, Fourier transform is performed in the dimensions of fast time and slow time to obtain the distance information and radial velocity information of the target. Furthermore, the measurement of the Direction Of Arrival (DOA) of the echo signal reflected from the target can be realized by multi-antenna technology.

[0004] In order to improve the estimation performance of parameter estimation (such as distance, radial velocity, DoA) of an FMCW radar system, it is necessary to calibrate and compensate the transceiver link. However, in the conventional calibration method, a large number of peripheral devices are required, and since the parameter indicators of radio frequency devices change with the environment, the radio frequency devices cannot be calibrated in real time. [Overview of the project]

[0005] Examples of the present disclosure provide calibration links, signal transmission links, integrated circuits, electromagnetic wave devices and apparatus.

[0006] A calibration link for a signal transmission main path, wherein the signal transmission main path is used to transmit electromagnetic wave signals, the calibration link is integrated into an integrated circuit including the signal transmission main path, the calibration link is connected at least between the signal transmission main path and an antenna corresponding to the signal transmission main path, the calibration link is configured to calibrate the signal transmission main path and obtain calibration information, the signal transmission main path is configured to perform calibration operations based on the calibration information obtained by the calibration link, and the calibrated signal transmission main path transmits electromagnetic wave signals. In other words, by integrating the calibration link and the main path as a single unit, real-time calibration is achieved without the need for peripheral equipment.

[0007] For example, the calibration link calibrates the signal transmission main path at least on one side of the gap through which the integrated circuit transmits and receives signals before the integrated circuit is shipped, and compensates for the transmitted information in real time based on calibration information obtained from a previous calibration of the calibration link.

[0008] Exemplary, the integrated circuit is provided with at least two of the signal transmission main paths, and one of the calibration links is configured to calibrate at least two of the signal transmission main paths.

[0009] For example, the signal transmitted by the calibration link is a monophonic signal.

[0010] Exemplary, the electromagnetic wave signal is a radar signal. The signal transmission main path includes a receiving main path for echo signals and / or a transmitting main path for radio frequency signals; the calibration link includes an auxiliary transmitting link corresponding to the receiving main path and / or an auxiliary receiving link corresponding to the transmitting main path; and the antenna includes a receiving antenna corresponding to the receiving main path and / or a transmitting antenna corresponding to the transmitting main path. The auxiliary receiving link is connected between the transmitting main path and the transmitting antenna and is configured to calibrate the radio frequency signal transmitted by the transmitting main path. The receiving main path includes a radio frequency unit and an intermediate frequency unit sequentially connected to a receiving antenna, and correspondingly, the auxiliary transmitting link includes at least one of an intermediate frequency auxiliary transmitting link corresponding to the intermediate frequency unit and a radio frequency auxiliary transmitting link corresponding to the radio frequency unit, wherein the intermediate frequency auxiliary transmitting link is connected to the intermediate frequency signal output terminal of the receiving main path and is configured to calibrate the intermediate frequency signal obtained by downconverting the echo signal received by the receiving main path, and the radio frequency auxiliary transmitting link is connected between the receiving main path and the corresponding receiving antenna and is configured to calibrate the echo signal received by the receiving main path.

[0011] Exemplary, the auxiliary receiving link includes a first mixer configured to perform mixing on a received signal using a local oscillator signal used for receiving operations, a first power amplifier configured to perform amplification on a signal output by the first mixer, a first filtering unit configured to perform filtering on a received signal to obtain a filtered signal, and a first real-number digital-to-analog converter configured to convert a digital filtered signal into an analog filtered signal.

[0012] Exemplary, the auxiliary receiving link may further include a first adder connected to the first real-digital-to-analog converter and configured to compensate for the signal output by the first real-digital-to-analog converter based on a leak signal of the local oscillator signal used in the first mixer.

[0013] For example, the calibration link may further include a calibration transmission link corresponding to the auxiliary receiving link, the calibration transmission link being configured to perform a calibration operation on the auxiliary receiving link, the auxiliary transmission link performing a calibration operation based on the calibration information obtained by the calibration receiving link, and the calibrated auxiliary receiving link performing a calibration operation on the transmission main path.

[0014] For example, the calibration transmission link may include a first signal generator configured to output a digital original signal, a second real-digital-to-analog converter configured to convert the digital original signal into an analog original signal, a second filtering unit configured to perform filtering on the original signal to obtain a filtered signal, a second power amplifier configured to perform amplification on the filtered signal to obtain an amplified signal, and a second mixer configured to perform mixing on the amplified signal using a local oscillator signal used for transmission operations.

[0015] Exemplary, the calibration transmission link may further include at least one of a second adder and a bandpass filter. The second adder is connected between the first signal generator and the second real-digital-to-analog converter and is configured to compensate the signal output by the first signal generator based on a leak signal of the local oscillator signal used in the second mixer. The bandpass filter is connected to the second mixer and is configured to filter the signal output by the second mixer and transmit the filtered signal to the calibration unit.

[0016] For example, the intermediate frequency auxiliary transmission link may include a first signal source and a third real-number digital-to-analog converter, the first signal source being configured to output a digital intermediate frequency calibration signal, and the third real-number digital-to-analog converter being configured to convert a digital intermediate frequency calibration signal to an analog intermediate frequency calibration signal. Alternatively, the intermediate frequency auxiliary transmission link may include a fourth real-number digital-to-analog converter, a third mixer, and a first squarer, the fourth real-number digital-to-analog converter being configured to convert a preset digital signal to an analog signal, the third mixer being configured to perform a mixing process on the signal output by the fourth real-number digital-to-analog converter and the local oscillator signal to obtain a mixed signal, and the first squarer being configured to perform a squaring process on the mixed signal to obtain the intermediate frequency calibration signal.

[0017] Exemplary, the first signal source includes a second signal generator and a digital phase shift module, wherein the second signal generator is configured to generate an initial signal, and the digital phase shift module is configured to perform frequency shift and / or phase shift processing on the initial signal using a digital quadrature modulation scheme.

[0018] For example, the radio frequency auxiliary transmission link may be further connected to the input terminal of the intermediate frequency unit, and after the calibration operation by the intermediate frequency unit is completed, the radio frequency auxiliary transmission link is calibrated using the calibrated intermediate frequency unit, and the radio frequency unit is calibrated using the calibrated radio frequency auxiliary transmission link.

[0019] For example, the radio frequency auxiliary transmission link may include a second signal source configured to output an original signal, a third filtering unit configured to perform filtering on the original signal to obtain a filtered signal, a third power amplifier configured to perform amplification on the filtered signal to obtain an amplified signal, and a fourth mixer configured to perform mixing on the amplified signal using a local oscillator signal to obtain a desired signal.

[0020] Exemplary, the radio frequency auxiliary transmit link includes at least one of a quadrature compensation unit, a second squarer, and a third adder. The quadrature compensation unit is connected at one end to the second signal source and at the other end to the third filtering unit, and is configured to compensate for quadrature imbalance in the received initial signal when the initial signal output by the second signal source is a quadrature signal. The second squarer is connected to the signal input terminal of the intermediate frequency unit and is configured to process the signal output by the fourth mixer and output it to the calibrated intermediate frequency unit. The third adder is connected at one end to the second signal source and at the other end to the third filtering unit, and is configured to compensate the signal output by the second signal source based on a leak signal of the local oscillator signal used in the fourth mixer.

[0021] A signal transmission link may include a signal transmission main path configured to transmit electromagnetic wave signals, and a calibration link integrated into a device including the signal transmission main path for the purpose of calibrating the signal transmission main path. The signal transmission main path performs calibration operations based on calibration information obtained by the calibration link, and the calibrated signal transmission main path performs electromagnetic wave signal transmission operations.

[0022] For example, the calibration link may be the calibration link described above. For example, the signal transmission main path and the calibration link are integrated within the same chip or on the same PCD or PCB board.

[0023] An integrated circuit having at least two signal transmission main paths and the calibration link located between the two transmission main paths, wherein the calibration link is shared by the two signal transmission main paths.

[0024] An electromagnetic wave device may include a carrier, the integrated circuit installed on the carrier, and an antenna installed on the carrier or integrated with the integrated circuit as an integrated device and including a transmission antenna and a reception antenna. The integrated circuit is connected to the antenna and is used for transmitting and / or receiving electromagnetic wave signals.

[0025] A user terminal device may include a device body and the electromagnetic wave device according to claim 20 provided on the device body. The electromagnetic wave device is used for target detection and / or wireless communication to provide reference information for the operation of the device body.

[0026] In the calibration link, signal transmission link, integrated circuit, electromagnetic wave device, and device according to the embodiments of the present disclosure, since the calibration link is integrated in the integrated circuit including the signal transmission main path, the calibration link can perform a calibration operation on the signal transmission main path in real time. The calibration operation of the calibration link does not change according to the change in the operating environment of the signal transmission main path. The signal transmission main path can obtain more accurate calibration information and improve the signal processing performance of the signal transmission main path.

Brief Description of the Drawings

[0027] [Figure 1A] It is a simplified schematic diagram of a signal transmission link of an analog phase shifter architecture. [Figure 1B] It is a simplified schematic diagram of an analog phase shifter in the signal transmission link shown in FIG. 1A. [Figure 2] It is a structural schematic diagram of a signal transmission link according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure. [Figure 3] It is a waveform schematic diagram of an FMCW transmission signal and an echo signal using sawtooth wave modulation. [Figure 4] It is a structural schematic diagram of another signal transmission link according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure. [Figure 5] It is a schematic diagram of a digital phase shifter architecture in a signal transmission link according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure. [Figure 6] This is a schematic diagram of a signal transmission link including a compensation unit according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. [Figure 7] This is a schematic diagram illustrating the calibration of the transmission main path using the calibration link according to the embodiment of this disclosure. [Figure 8] This is a schematic diagram of the structure of a signal transmission and reception link according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure. [Figure 9] This is a schematic diagram of the structure of another signal transmission and reception link according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure. [Figure 10] This is a schematic diagram of another transmit / receive link according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. [Figure 11] This is a schematic diagram of a transmit / receive link including TX IQ Mod, RX IQ De-Mod, and LO Freq Diff according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. [Figure 12] This is a schematic diagram of a transmit / receive link combining BIST based on the structure shown in Figure 11 according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. [Figure 13] This is a schematic diagram of a transmit / receive link including a TX IQ Mod, a BIST IQ Mod, and an RX IQ De-Mod according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. [Figure 14] This is a schematic diagram of a transmit / receive link including an auxiliary circuit and a BIST IQ Mod according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. [Figure 15] This is a schematic diagram of an auxiliary circuit and another transmit / receive link including a BIST IQ Mod according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. [Figure 16] This is a schematic diagram of the structure of a mixer according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. [Figure 17] This is a schematic diagram of the structure of the compensation unit in a transmitter according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. [Figure 18] This is a schematic diagram of a digital pre-compensated HD3 architecture based on a cube module according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. [Figure 19] This is a schematic diagram of a digital pre-compensated HD3 architecture based on a frequency multiplier module according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. [Figure 20]This is a schematic diagram of the calibration compensation of a transmit link based on a digital phase shifter architecture according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. [Figure 21A] This is a schematic diagram of the structure of the calibration link of the signal transmission main path according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. [Figure 21B] Figure 21A is a schematic diagram illustrating the arrangement of the calibration links. [Figure 22A] This is a schematic diagram illustrating the connection between the calibration link and the transmission main path according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. [Figure 22B] This is a schematic diagram of the first connection between the calibration link and the receiving main path according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. [Figure 22C] This is a schematic diagram of a second connection between the calibration link and the receiving main path according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. [Figure 23A] Figure 22A is a schematic diagram of the auxiliary receiving link structure. [Figure 23B] Figure 23A is a schematic diagram of another structure of the auxiliary receiving link. [Figure 23C] Figure 22A is a schematic diagram of the structure of the calibration transmission link. [Figure 23D] Figure 23C is a schematic diagram of another structure of the calibration transmission link. [Figure 24] This is a schematic diagram illustrating the application of a calibration link corresponding to the transmission main path according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. [Figure 25A] Figure 22A is a schematic diagram of the first structure of the intermediate frequency auxiliary transmission link. [Figure 25B] Figure 22A is a schematic diagram of the second structure of the intermediate frequency auxiliary transmit link. [Figure 25C] Figure 22A is a schematic diagram of the structure of the radio frequency auxiliary transmission link. [Figure 25D] Figure 25C shows another schematic diagram of the radio frequency auxiliary transmission link structure. [Figure 26] This is a schematic diagram illustrating the application of a calibration link corresponding to the receiving main path according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. [Figure 27A] This is a first schematic diagram illustrating an intermediate frequency auxiliary transmission link according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. [Figure 27B]This is a second schematic diagram illustrating an intermediate frequency auxiliary transmission link according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. [Modes for carrying out the invention]

[0028] Radar is an electronic device that uses electromagnetic waves to detect targets. The radar chip transmits a beam through a signal transmission link, and when the transmitted beam encounters an obstacle, the echo reflected through the obstacle is received by a receiving antenna and transmitted to the radar chip. The radar chip then determines information such as the target's position, distance, and speed relative to the electromagnetic wave transmission point. With the development of technologies such as microelectronics, radar is increasingly being applied to a wide range of applications. In particular, millimeter-wave radar (e.g., automotive radar) has a small antenna size and is widely used in autonomous driving, smart home equipment, and industrial automation devices. Currently, the miniaturization and integration of radar are the trends in current development.

[0029] Figure 1A is a simplified schematic diagram of a signal transmission link in an analog phase shifter architecture, and Figure 1B is a simplified schematic diagram of the analog phase shifter in the signal transmission link shown in Figure 1A. As shown in Figure 1A, when a sensor transmits a signal to a single transmission link, it generates a local oscillator (LO) signal (e.g., a frequency sweep signal in the 77 GHz frequency band) via a signal generator 11 consisting of, for example, a phase-locked loop (PLL), which may be, for example, an FMCW signal. The analog phase shifter (Analog PS) 12 performs a phase shift operation on the received LO signal and then radiates it into a preset spatial area via a transmitting antenna 13 to perform operations such as target detection and measurement. As an alternative, in the transmission link structure shown in Figure 1A, the corresponding analog phase shifter architecture may be as shown in Figure 1B, and its specific phase shift principle may be as shown by the following equation.

[0030]

number

number

[0031] The analog phase shifters described above have low phase modulation resolution and accuracy, and therefore cannot meet the needs of current sensors. Furthermore, while phase modulation resolution and accuracy can be improved through calibration, the need to perform offline calibration of analog architecture phase shifters significantly increases the difficulty and complexity of process implementation and mass production. At the same time, analog phase shifters have large area, high losses, and relatively serious problems with stability and channel coupling.

[0032] Signal transmission links using analog phase shifter architectures have problems such as low phase modulation accuracy and precision, making them unable to meet the high-performance demands of automotive radar systems.

[0033] As shown in Figure 2, embodiments of the present disclosure provide a signal transmission link applicable to a radar system, which may include a transmit baseband digital module 201, a digital-to-analog converter (DAC) module 202, a transmit local oscillator 203, and a transmit quadrature modulator 204. The transmit baseband digital module 201 is configured to generate two orthogonal transmit digital baseband signals and transmit them to the I channel and Q channel of the DAC module 202, respectively. The DAC module 202 is configured to convert the two orthogonal transmit digital baseband signals into two transmit analog baseband signals. The transmit local oscillator 203 is configured to supply a transmit local oscillator signal TX_LO. The transmit quadrature modulator 204 is configured to perform a frequency-shifted and phase-shifted operation on the transmit local oscillator signal TX_LO based on the two transmit analog baseband signals to form a preset phase-shifted FMCW radio frequency transmit signal.

[0034] In embodiments of this disclosure, the transmit digital baseband signal supplied by the transmit baseband digital module 201 may include preset phase information. The digital-to-analog conversion module 202 converts the received transmit digital baseband signal to a transmit analog baseband signal by performing digital-to-analog conversion on the received transmit digital baseband signal (for example, converting a digital signal to an analog signal without changing the phase information). The transmit quadrature modulator 204 performs a mixing operation on the received transmit analog baseband signal and the transmit local oscillator signal TX_LO generated by the transmit local oscillator 203, and performs a preset phase shift operation on the transmit local oscillator signal while frequency shifting it based on the transmit analog baseband signal to form a preset phase-shifted FMCW radio frequency transmit signal.

[0035] The signal transmission link of the embodiment of this disclosure comprises a digital phase shifter architecture using a transmitting baseband digital module 201, a digital-to-analog conversion module 202, and a transmitting quadrature modulator 204. The baseband signal of this architecture is generated in the digital domain and has better orthogonality and lower side lobes, thus accurately producing its phase shift phase and increasing phase modulation accuracy. This enables an in-vehicle radar system with high-precision digital phase shift capabilities, reduces the requirement for separation between antennas, and simultaneously offers advantages such as low link loss, low cost, and no offline calibration. It can also support more flexible radio wave transmission methods such as high-performance Doppler multiplexing and frequency division multiplexing, and can support frequency response compensation in the digital domain.

[0036] In the embodiments of this disclosure, the transmitting baseband digital module 201 supplies a digital signal, and to further adapt the signal characteristics, the transmitting modulator is a quadrature modulator (IQ modulator) and the digital-to-analog conversion module 202 is a quadrature digital-to-analog converter (IQ DAC).

[0037] In embodiments of this disclosure, the transmitting local oscillator 203 may have an architecture that includes a phase-locked loop (PLL) and can supply electromagnetic wave (e.g., laser, microwave, etc.) signals.

[0038] In some exemplary embodiments, the signal transmission link further includes a power amplifier (PA) 205 configured to power amplified the phase-shifted radio frequency signal and output the amplified signal to a transmitting antenna.

[0039] In some exemplary embodiments, the signal transmission link further includes a transmitting antenna 206, which is configured to radiate the amplified signal into a predetermined spatial region.

[0040] In embodiments of this disclosure, the signal amplified by the power amplifier 205 may be radiated into a predetermined spatial region via a transmitting antenna 206 that is either integrally packaged or placed externally. That is, the transmitting local oscillator 203, digital phase shifter, and transmitting antenna 206 may be integrated as a single device or they may be separate devices. For example, the transmitting local oscillator 203 and the digital phase shifter may be integrated in a single package to form an SoC chip, and the transmitting antenna 206 may be connected via a peripheral port of the chip and formed on a carrier such as a PCB substrate. On the other hand, in some selective embodiments, the transmitting antenna 206 may be integrated on the chip package to form an AiP (Antenna in Package) or AoP (Antenna on Package), having a chip structure with a packaged antenna.

[0041] In some exemplary embodiments, the frequency bandwidth of the frequency sweep signal is 2 GHz or greater. For example, in the case of radar, the electromagnetic wave of the transmitted signal transmitted by the transmitting antenna of a frequency-modulated continuous wave radar system is a high-frequency frequency-modulated continuous wave, and the echo signal received by the receiving antenna of a frequency-modulated continuous wave radar system is an electromagnetic wave reflected and scattered from an object. Figure 3 shows schematic waveforms of exemplary FMCW transmitted and echo signals. As shown in Figure 3, the frequencies of the transmitted and echo signals change regularly over time. Frequency-modulated continuous waves generally have a sawtooth or triangular shape, but in this disclosure, a sawtooth shape is used as an example, and the electromagnetic wave within each frequency modulation period T is called a chirp, and the frequency of the signal of each chirp increases linearly over time. In embodiments of this disclosure, the bandwidth range B of a single chirp is 2 GHz or greater.

[0042] In some exemplary embodiments, the transmitted digital baseband signal is a monophonic signal, and the transmitted local oscillator signal is a frequency sweep signal.

[0043] In embodiments of this disclosure, the transmitting local oscillator 203 is configured to supply an FMCW signal in the centimeter-wave or millimeter-wave band in the microwave range (e.g., bands such as 3.1 GHz, 24 GHz, 60 GHz, 77 GHz, etc.). The transmitting baseband digital module 201 is configured to supply a monophonic transmitting digital baseband signal at the MHz level (e.g., 3 MHz to 5 MHz, e.g., 3 MHz, 4 MHz, 5 MHz, etc.). That is, the digital-to-analog conversion module 202 converts the MHz-level monophonic transmitting digital baseband signal to an analog-to-digital signal to obtain a monophonic transmitting analog baseband signal in the corresponding frequency range. The transmitting quadrature modulator 204 is configured to perform up-mixing or down-mixing operations on the received millimeter-wave band FMCW signal based on the received monophonic transmitting analog baseband signal to achieve a preset phase shift of the FMCW signal.

[0044] For example, an FMCW signal in the 3.1 GHz band may include a frequency sweep signal between 3.1 GHz and 10.6 GHz, for example, 7.163 to 8.812 GHz. An FMCW signal in the 77 GHz band may include a frequency sweep signal between 76 GHz and 81 GHz, or frequency sweep signals such as 76 GHz to 77 GHz, 77 GHz to 79 GHz, or 79 GHz to 81 GHz.

[0045] In several other exemplary embodiments, the transmitted digital baseband signal is a frequency sweep signal, and the transmitted local oscillator signal is a monophonic signal.

[0046] In embodiments of this disclosure, the transmitting local oscillator 203 is configured to supply a monophonic transmitting local oscillator signal in the centimeter-wave or millimeter-wave band in the microwave range (e.g., bands such as 3.1 GHz, 24 GHz, 60 GHz, 77 GHz, etc.). The transmitting baseband digital module 201 is configured to supply a transmitting digital baseband FMCW signal at the MHz level (e.g., 3 MHz to 5 MHz, e.g., 3 MHz, 4 MHz, 5 MHz, etc.). That is, the digital-to-analog conversion module 202 converts the MHz-level transmitting digital baseband FMCW signal from digital to analog to obtain a transmitting analog baseband FMCW signal in the corresponding frequency range. The transmitting quadrature modulator 204 is configured to perform upmixing or downmixing operations on the received centimeter-wave or millimeter-wave monophonic transmitting local oscillator signal based on the received transmitting analog baseband FMCW signal to achieve preset phase shift and frequency sweep of the monophonic transmitting local oscillator signal.

[0047] For example, a monophonic local oscillator signal in the 3.1 GHz band may be a monophonic analog signal in a fixed frequency band such as 3.1 GHz, 5 GHz, 6 GHz, 8 GHz, or 10.6 GHz. A monophonic local oscillator signal in the 77 GHz band may be a monophonic analog signal in a fixed frequency band such as 76 GHz, 77 GHz, 78 GHz, 79 GHz, 80 GHz, or 81 GHz.

[0048] In some exemplary embodiments, the signal transmission link further includes a low-pass filter (LPF) 207, which is installed between a digital-to-analog conversion module 202 and a transmit quadrature modulator 204, and is configured to low-pass filter the transmit analog baseband signal output by the digital-to-analog conversion module 202 and output it to the transmit quadrature modulator 204.

[0049] As shown in Figure 2, the transmitting baseband digital module 201 generates two orthogonal digital baseband signals, namely an I-channel digital baseband signal and a Q-channel digital baseband signal. The generated digital baseband signals are sent to the digital-to-analog conversion module 202 (which includes two completely identical DACs, i.e., an IQ DAC) to obtain two analog baseband signals. The two analog baseband signals are then input to a low-pass filter 207 to filter out out-of-band noise signals, and then orthogonally modulated by a transmitting quadrature modulator 204 to obtain a modulated radio frequency signal. The modulated radio frequency signal is then radiated by a power amplifier 205 and a transmitting antenna 206.

[0050] In some exemplary embodiments, the signal transmission link may further include a Direct Digital Frequency Synthesizer (DDFS) (not shown in Figure 2) installed between the transmit baseband digital module 201 and the digital-to-analog conversion module 202. The Direct Digital Frequency Synthesizer realizes at least one of several signal waveforms and wave transmission methods, such as CDM (Code-Division Multiplexing), DDM (Doppler-Division Multiplexing), TDM (Time-Division Multiplexing), SDM (Space Division Multiplexing), CSD (Circuit Switch Data), and Digital IF (Digital Intermediate Frequency), based on the received source signal, thereby enabling flexible configuration of the signal transmission form and transmitted waveform.

[0051] As shown in Figure 4, embodiments of the present disclosure further provide a signal transmission link applied to an electromagnetic wave transmitting device, the signal transmission link comprising a first signal source 41 and a digital phase shift module 42. The first signal source 41 is configured to generate a first analog signal, and the digital phase shift module 42 is configured to perform frequency shift and / or phase shift on the first analog signal using a digital quadrature modulation scheme to form an FMCW radio frequency transmission signal.

[0052] The signal transmission link according to the embodiment of the present disclosure comprises a first signal source 41 and a digital phase shift module 42, wherein the first signal source 41 is configured to supply a first analog signal, and the digital phase shift module 42 is configured to generate a phase shift signal in the digital domain, and the digital phase shift module 42 can also perform a preset phase shift operation on the first analog signal by performing a phase shift on the first analog signal based on the generated phase shift signal.

[0053] In some exemplary embodiments, the first signal source 41 may be a transmitting local oscillator, and the first analog signal may be a transmitting local oscillator (LO) signal. In some exemplary embodiments, the signal transmission link further comprises a power amplifier (not shown) configured to amplify the FMCW radio frequency transmission signal. In some exemplary embodiments, the signal transmission link further comprises a transmitting antenna 43 configured to radiate a power-amplified FMCW radio frequency transmission signal into a preset region.

[0054] As shown in Figure 4, in some selective embodiments, the signal transmission link may include a first signal source 41, a digital phase shift module (Digital PS) 42, and a transmitting antenna 43, etc. That is, the first signal source 41 is configured to supply an LO signal, and the digital phase shift module 42 is configured to perform a preset phase shift operation on the received LO signal and radiate the phase-shifted LO signal into a preset spatial region via the transmitting antenna 43. The first signal source 41 may have an architecture including a phase-locked loop (PLL) and can supply electromagnetic wave (e.g., laser, microwave, etc.) signals. The first signal source 41, the digital phase shift module 42, and the transmitting antenna 43 may be integrated as a single device or they may be separate devices. For example, the first signal source 41 and the digital phase shift module 42 may be integrated in a single package to form an SoC chip, and the transmitting antenna 43 may be connected via a peripheral port of the chip and formed on a carrier such as a PCB substrate. On the other hand, in some selective embodiments, the transmitting antenna 43 may be integrated on the chip package to form an AiP or AoP, and the chip structure may have a packaged antenna.

[0055] In some exemplary embodiments, the digital phase shift module 42 includes a second signal source 423, a digital-to-analog converter module 422, and a mixer 421, which are sequentially connected. The second signal source 423 is configured to generate a first digital signal, the digital-to-analog converter module 422 is configured to convert the first digital signal to a second analog signal, and the mixer 421 is configured to perform frequency shifting and / or phase shifting relative to the first analog signal based on the second analog signal to form an FMCW radio frequency transmission signal.

[0056] As shown in Figure 4, the digital phase shift module 42 in the embodiment of this disclosure may include a mixer 421, a digital-to-analog converter module (i.e., a DAC) 422, and a second signal source (e.g., a digital baseband signal source) 423. That is, the second signal source 423 is configured to supply a first digital signal. The digital-to-analog converter module 422 is configured to perform digital-to-analog conversion on the received first digital signal to convert the first digital signal into a second analog signal. The mixer 421 is configured to perform a mixing operation on the received second analog signal and the first analog signal received from the first signal source 41 to achieve a phase shift operation set on the first analog signal using the first digital signal. As an option, when the above signal transmission link supplies a frequency sweep signal such as an FMCW laser signal or an FMCW microwave signal, it supplies a frequency sweep transmission signal based on the first signal source 41 and / or a frequency sweep first digital signal based on the second signal source 423, thereby outputting a frequency sweep continuous wave signal after mixing via the mixer 421.

[0057] In some selective embodiments, based on the configuration shown in Figure 4, the first signal source 41 is configured to supply an FMCW signal (i.e., a first analog signal) in the centimeter-wave or millimeter-wave band in the microwave (e.g., bands such as 3.1 GHz, 24 GHz, 60 GHz, 77 GHz, etc.), and the second signal source 423 is configured to supply a first digital signal at the MHz level (e.g., 3 MHz to 5 MHz, e.g., 3 MHz, 4 MHz, 5 MHz, etc.). That is, the digital-to-analog conversion module 422 converts the MHz-level first digital signal to an analog signal to obtain a second analog signal in the corresponding frequency range. The mixer 421 is configured to perform up-mixing or down-mixing operations on the received millimeter-wave band FMCW signal based on the received fixed-band second analog signal to achieve a preset phase shift of the FMCW signal.

[0058] In some selective embodiments, centimeter-wave signals in the 3.1 GHz band may include frequencies from 3.1 GHz to 10.6 GHz, such as 3.1 GHz, 5 GHz, 5 GHz, 6 GHz, 8 GHz, 10.6 GHz, etc. Millimeter-wave signals in the 77 GHz band may include signals from 76 GHz to 81 GHz, such as frequency sweep signals from 76 GHz to 77 GHz, 77 GHz to 79 GHz, 79 GHz to 81 GHz, etc., or fixed-band signals such as 76 GHz, 77 GHz, 78 GHz, 79 GHz, 80 GHz, 81 GHz, etc.

[0059] In some embodiments, the first digital signal includes two orthogonal transmit digital baseband signals, the second signal source 423 is a transmit baseband digital module, and the digital-to-analog conversion module 422 comprises two identical digital-to-analog converters. The transmit baseband digital module is configured to generate two orthogonal transmit digital baseband signals and to send each of the two orthogonal transmit digital baseband signals to one digital-to-analog converter. The digital-to-analog conversion module 422 is configured to convert the two orthogonal transmit digital baseband signals into two transmit analog baseband signals.

[0060] Based on the configuration shown in Figure 4, the second signal source 423 supplies the first digital signal, and to further adapt the signal characteristics, the mixer 421 can be made into an IQ Mixer and the digital-to-analog conversion module 422 into an IQ DAC. Alternatively, the second signal source 423 may be configured to provide a digital baseband signal source (DDFS) for phase shifting and / or to provide a corresponding source signal as a Waveform Control. The DDFS is a phase-modulated digital baseband signal source that generates a digital baseband signal.

[0061] As shown in Figure 5, the TX digital phase shifter architecture may include a digital baseband signal source (Baseband), a Direct Digital Frequency Synthesizer (DDFS), a Digital to Analog Converter (DAC), a Low-Pass Filter (LPF), an IQ modulator / IQ Mixer, a Power Amplifier (PA), and the like. In other words, the baseband signal source is configured to supply the digital phase shift source signal (i.e., the first digital signal mentioned above). The direct digital frequency synthesizer realizes at least one of several signal waveforms and wave transmission methods, such as CDM (Code-Division Multiplexing), DDM (Doppler-Division Multiplexing), TDM (Time-Division Multiplexing), SDM (Space Division Multiplexing), CSD (Circuit Switch Data), and Digital IF (Digital Intermediate Frequency), based on the received source signal, thereby enabling flexible configuration of signal transmission form and transmitted waveform. The signal amplified by the power amplifier may be radiated into a preset spatial area via a transmitting antenna that is either integrated into the package or placed externally.

[0062] In the embodiment of the digital phase shifter architecture for a signal transmission link, the digital phase shifter architecture is configured to generate a baseband signal sequence in the digital domain, generate an analog baseband signal (i.e., a second analog signal) by a DAC, and modulate the transmission signal to a high frequency via an orthogonal mixer. That is, the baseband signal of the architecture is generated in the digital domain, has good orthogonality and low side lobes, so accurately produces its phase shift phase and has high phase modulation accuracy.

[0063] In some selective embodiments, when the transmitted signal implemented using RF LO frequency sweep is an FMCW signal, a compensation unit can be added to the signal transmission link of a digital phase shifter architecture to address potential problems such as TX IQ imbalance due to IQ mismatch, signal leakage (e.g., TX LO Leakage), and harmonic distortion (abbreviated as HD). As shown in Figure 5, by providing a TX compensation unit between the TX DDFS and the IQ DAC and performing operations such as calibration and compensation on the signal transmission link of the digital phase shifter architecture, it is possible to resolve at least one of the above problems. HD resulting from third-order nonlinearity in the baseband can be abbreviated as HD3.

[0064] In some selective embodiments, as shown in Figure 6, the TX compensation unit (TX compensation) may include at least one of the following: a TX LO leakage compensation unit (TX LO leakage compensation), a TX IQ imbalance compensation unit (TX IQ imbalance compensation), and a TX HD3 compensation unit (TX HD3 compensation). The TX LO leakage compensation unit is configured to perform compensation operations for signal leakage, the TX IQ imbalance compensation unit is configured to perform compensation operations for IQ imbalance, and the TX HD3 compensation unit is configured to perform compensation operations for the HD3. The TX IQ imbalance compensation unit is configured to perform compensation operations for at least one of the following: TX IQ modulator imbalance, IQ channel imbalance. Furthermore, if the compensation unit includes at least two of the following: a TX LO leakage compensation unit, a TX IQ unbalance compensation unit, and a TX HD3 compensation unit, synchronous (parallel method, etc.) compensation may be performed, sequential (series method, etc.) compensation may be performed, or as shown in Figure 6, IQ compensation may be performed first, then LO compensation, and finally HD3 compensation.

[0065] In some selective embodiments, although not shown, the signal transmission link of the digital phase shifter architecture may further include an error correction module for the DAC (TX DAC Board Error Correction) and an AWGN (additive white gaussian noise) module for white gaussian noise, etc. Specifically, these may be added or removed depending on the actual requirements. In the IQ referred to in the embodiments of this disclosure, I may be an abbreviation for In-Phase, Q may be an abbreviation for Quadrature, and RF may be an abbreviation for Radio Frequency.

[0066] In one selective embodiment, compensation for IQ imbalance is achieved by compensating for the conjugate signal of the BB (baseband) signal to cancel out the Miller component in the opposite direction, and this compensation method is not affected by the IQ imbalance calibration method. Compensation for LO leakage can be achieved by adjusting the DC components (i.e., DC bias) of both IQs, and similarly, the LO leakage calibration method is not affected by the compensation method. For HD3, the third harmonic distortion of the quadrature mixer V / I converter is the main source of HD3, and since the harmonic distortion is affected by the DC bias, when both LO leakage and HD3 of the transmit link need to be calibrated, it is necessary to calibrate HD3 after calibrating LO leakage to ensure accurate performance of the HD3 calibration. When LO leakage, IQ imbalance, and HD3 of the transmit link need to be calibrated, it is necessary to calibrate IQ imbalance after calibrating LO leakage, and finally calibrate HD3 to ensure accurate performance.

[0067] Furthermore, the HD3 compensation methods, including the digital pre-compensation architecture based on the digital cube module and the digital pre-compensation architecture based on the frequency multiplier module, directly affect the subsequent calibration method and subsequent compensation flow. Specifically, these are shown below.

[0068] In one selective embodiment, for a digital pre-compensation architecture based on a digital cube module, LO Leakage is calibrated and compensated, then IQ Imbalance is calibrated with a stable DC bias, and after continuing to compensate for IQ Imbalance, the two channels of IQ are calibrated respectively based on the pre-compensation result of IQ Imbalance, the root cause of the HD3 problem, namely the HD3 compensation coefficient, is calibrated, and third-harmonic distortion is compensated.

[0069] In one selective embodiment, for a digital pre-compensation architecture based on a frequency multiplier module, LO Leakage is calibrated and compensated, then the HD3 compensation coefficient is calibrated, the IQ Imbalance is calibrated with a stable DC bias, and the IQ Imbalance is compensated. Subsequently, from the compensated results, the actual waveforms of the two channels of the IQ signal and the HD3 compensation coefficient are calculated, respectively, and the waveform information for the 3rd and 5th frequencies requiring pre-compensation is inversely calculated.

[0070] In other selective embodiments, for a digital pre-compensation architecture based on a frequency multiplier module, the LO Leakage is first calibrated and compensated, then the compensation coefficient for IQ Imbalance is calibrated by multiple observations (e.g., three times), then the compensation coefficient at the HD3 mirror position is calibrated by further observations (e.g., two times), and finally, the 3rd and 5th frequency coefficients requiring pre-compensation are calculated inversely from the compensation coefficients at the HD3 and HD3 mirror positions. Note that the observations in the embodiments of this disclosure are for the purpose of representing operations such as testing and comparative analysis of different test results.

[0071] Figure 7 is a schematic diagram illustrating the calibration of a transmit main path using a calibration link according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. As shown in Figure 7, the calibration link is used to calibrate a transmit main path for transmitting radio frequency signals. The transmit main path includes a transmit unit connected to a transmit antenna, and the calibration link is integrated into the integrated circuit including the transmit main path. Because the calibration link is integrated into the integrated circuit including the transmit main path, the transmit main path can be calibrated in real time, and calibration operations on the transmit main path by an external device are not required.

[0072] The calibration link includes a calibration unit, which is connected between the transmitting unit and the transmitting antenna and is configured to calibrate the radio frequency signal output by the transmitting unit. The transmitting unit is configured to perform a calibration operation based on the calibration information acquired by the calibration link, and the radio frequency signal output by the calibrated transmitting unit is radiated into a preset region via the transmitting antenna.

[0073] The main transmission path (Transmitter) may include a phase shift module PS, a power amplifier PA, a power detector PD, etc. For example, the transmission path can employ a signal transmission link of a digital phase shift architecture as described in any embodiment of this disclosure, which can be specifically described in the relevant figures and textual descriptions and will not be repeated here. Because the transmission path employs a digital phase shift architecture, it enables more precise phase shifting operations, and at the same time, the transmission path can simultaneously support multiple modes such as multi-antenna DDM and FDM (Frequency Division Multiplexing), eliminating the need for RF phase shifter calibration operations, reducing isolation and coupling in the phase shift system, and lowering link loss and production costs. Furthermore, to address potential problems such as introduced TX IQ mismatch and LO leakage, the transmission path of the digital phase shift architecture can support RF frequency response compensation in the digital domain, calibration operations for IQ imbalance and LO leakage, etc.

[0074] By installing a calibration link, related calibration operations can be performed to address issues such as TX IQ mismatch, LO leakage, and frequency response present in the transmit path.

[0075] Since the calibration link is integrated into the integrated circuit including the main transmission path, the calibration unit can calibrate the transmission unit in real time. Furthermore, because the operating environments of the calibration unit and the transmission unit are the same, the calibration operation of the calibration unit does not change in response to changes in the operating environment of the transmission unit. This allows the calibration unit to obtain more accurate calibration information and improve the signal processing performance of the transmission unit.

[0076] In the calibration link according to the embodiment of this disclosure, the calibration link is integrated into the integrated circuit including the main transmit path. Therefore, the calibration link can perform calibration operations on the main transmit path in real time, and the calibration operations of the calibration link do not change in response to changes in the operating environment of the main transmit path. As a result, the main transmit path can obtain more accurate calibration information, and the signal processing performance of the main transmit path can be improved.

[0077] Embodiments of this disclosure further provide a signal transmission / reception link including a signal transmission link and a signal reception link. As shown in Figure 8 or 9, the signal transmission link may include a transmit baseband digital module 201, a digital-to-analog converter module 202, a transmit local oscillator 203, and a transmit quadrature modulator 204. The transmit baseband digital module 201 is configured to generate two orthogonal transmit digital baseband signals and transmit the generated transmit digital baseband signals to the digital-to-analog converter module 202. The digital-to-analog converter module 202 is configured to convert the transmit digital baseband signals to a transmit analog baseband signal. The transmit local oscillator 203 is configured to supply a transmit local oscillator signal TX_LO. The transmit quadrature modulator 204 is configured to perform a phase shift operation on the transmit local oscillator signal TX_LO based on the transmit analog baseband signal to obtain a phase-shifted radio frequency signal.

[0078] The signal receiving link may include a receiving local oscillator 302, a receiving mixer 303, an analog-to-digital converter (ADC) 304, and a receiving baseband digital module 305. The receiving local oscillator 302 is configured to supply a receiving local oscillator signal. The receiving mixer 303 is configured to perform a mixing operation on the received echo signal based on the receiving local oscillator signal to obtain a received analog baseband signal. The analog-to-digital converter 304 is configured to convert the received analog baseband signal into a received digital baseband signal. The receiving baseband digital module 305 is configured to process the received digital baseband signal to enable target detection and / or wireless communication, and to obtain target parameter information such as distance, velocity, angle, height, and micromotion characteristics.

[0079] In the embodiments of this disclosure, two ideal I-channel digital baseband signals and Q-channel digital baseband signals generated by the transmitting baseband digital module 201 can be converted through the digital-to-analog conversion module 202 to obtain a highly ideal complex signal, and the phase of the complex signal can be precisely controlled by the transmitting baseband digital module 201. The receiver structure of the signal transmission / reception link as shown in Figure 8 or Figure 9 allows for efficient acquisition of phase information of the radio frequency signal of the signal transmission link, thereby enabling multi-antenna phase modulation.

[0080] In some exemplary embodiments, the signal transmission link may further include a power amplifier 205. The power amplifier 205 is configured to power amplified the radio frequency signal after phase shifting and output the amplified signal to the transmitting antenna.

[0081] In some exemplary embodiments, the signal transmission link may further include a transmitting antenna 206. The transmitting antenna 206 is configured to radiate the amplified signal into a predetermined spatial region.

[0082] In some exemplary embodiments, the signal receiving link may further include a receiving antenna 301. The receiving antenna 301 is configured to receive an echo signal, which is a signal formed when a signal transmitted by the signal transmitting link is reflected and / or scattered by an object.

[0083] In some exemplary embodiments, the received local oscillator signal may be a frequency sweep signal, or the received local oscillator signal may be a monophonic signal.

[0084] In the embodiments of this disclosure, the frequencies of the TX-LO signal received by the transmitting quadrature modulator 204 in the signal transmission link and the RX-LO signal received by the receiving mixer 303 in the signal reception link may be the same. For example, assuming that the signal output from the transmitting baseband digital module 201 is a sine wave of x MHz, the TX-LO signal and the RX-LO signal may both be sine waves of z GHz. Both x and z are positive numbers and may generally be between 0 and 1000.

[0085] The principle of this disclosure will be explained below using the signal transmission link shown in Figure 8. As described above, in the case of an FMCW radar system, there are two types of wave transmission solutions for the signal transmission link: 1) The transmitting local oscillator signal is a frequency sweep signal, and the transmitting digital baseband signal is a monotone signal. 2) The transmitting local oscillator signal is a monotone signal, and the transmitting digital baseband signal is a frequency sweep signal. If we represent the transmitting local oscillator signal TX_LO, the transmitting digital baseband signal, and the modulated transmitted signal as TLO(t), BB(t), and TX(t), respectively, and the I-channel signal and Q-channel signal as subscripts I and q, and their complex signal form as a superscript, then in the two wave transmission solutions, the signals at each stage of the signal transmission link can be represented as follows.

[0086] 1) The transmitting local oscillator signal is a frequency sweep signal, and the transmitting digital baseband signal is a monophonic signal.

number

[0087] 2) The transmitting local oscillator signal is a monophonic signal, and the transmitting digital baseband signal is a frequency sweep signal.

number

[0088] If we represent the received local oscillator signal RX_LO in the signal receiving link shown in Figure 8 as RLO(t), then in this embodiment, assuming that the received local oscillator signal RX_LO is a frequency sweep signal, RLO(t) can be expressed as follows.

number

number

[0089] In some selective embodiments, the receiving antenna 301 may be connected via peripheral ports of the chip and formed on a carrier such as a PCB substrate. On the other hand, in some other selective embodiments, the receiving antenna may be integrated on the chip package to form an AiP or AoP, and have a chip structure with the antenna packaged.

[0090] In some exemplary embodiments, the signal receiving link may further include a low-noise amplifier (LNA) 306. The LNA 306 is installed between the receiving antenna 301 and the receiving mixer 303, and performs low-noise amplification on the echo signal received by the receiving antenna 301 before transmitting it to the receiving mixer 303.

[0091] In some exemplary embodiments, the signal receiving link may further include a low-pass filter (LPF) 307 and a high-pass filter (HPF) 308 connected in series. The two filters are placed between the receiving mixer 303 and the analog-to-digital converter 304, and the low-pass filter 307 and high-pass filter 308 constitute a band-pass filter for filtering out-of-band noise.

[0092] In some exemplary embodiments, as shown in Figure 8, in the signal receiving link, the receiving mixer 303 may be a real-number mixer, and the analog-to-digital converter 304 may be a real-number analog-to-digital converter.

[0093] In the embodiments of this disclosure, the signal transmission link employs a digital phase-shift architecture, but the signal reception link may include a receiver with a quadrature or non-quadrature reception architecture. This allows for efficient compatibility with sensors of various reception link architectures and effectively reduces the overall development cost of the transmit / receive link system.

[0094] In some other exemplary embodiments, as shown in Figure 9, the receiving mixer 303 may be an orthogonal mixer and the analog-to-digital converter 304 may be an orthogonal analog-to-digital converter in the signal receiving link.

[0095] To match the signal transmission link of the digital phase shifter architecture, in this embodiment of the disclosure, the receiving mixer 303 in the signal receiving link is adjusted to an IQ demodulator, and at the same time, the analog-to-digital converter 304 is adjusted to an IQ ADC. The echo signal received by the receiving antenna is sequentially processed by the low-noise amplifier 306, receiving mixer 303, low-pass filter 307, high-pass filter 308, and analog-to-digital converter 304, and then converted into an IQ digital baseband signal. The subsequent receiving baseband digital module 305 processes the IQ digital baseband signal to obtain target parameter information such as distance, velocity, angle, height, and micro-motion characteristics (i.e., micro-Doppler).

[0096] If the receiving mixer 303 is a quadrature mixer and the receiving local oscillator signal is a frequency sweep signal, the receiving local oscillator signal RX_LO can be expressed as follows.

number

[0097] In some other exemplary embodiments, the receiving local oscillator signal of the signal receiving link may be a monophonic signal as shown in formula (12) or formula (13), in addition to the frequency sweep signal shown in formula (9) or formula (11).

number

[0098] If the received local oscillator signal is a monophonic signal, the required digital baseband signal can be obtained by adding a digital domain signal processing flow (including digital domain mixing operations) to the receiving baseband digital module 305.

[0099] As described above, the embodiments of this disclosure can be expanded to include a variety of system-level technical solutions by combining different transmission and reception solutions (for example, the transmitting end may have a digital baseband signal that is a monotone signal and a local oscillator signal that is a frequency sweep signal, or a digital baseband signal that is a frequency sweep signal and a local oscillator signal that is a monotone signal, and the receiving end may employ a real-number mixer and a real-number analog-to-digital converter, or a quadrature mixer and a quadrature analog-to-digital converter, and the receiving end may employ a monotone local oscillator signal or a frequency sweep local oscillator signal).

[0100] Figure 10 is a schematic diagram of another transmit / receive link according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. Figure 11 is a schematic diagram of a transmit / receive link including TX IQ Mod, RX IQ De-Mod, and LO Freq Diff according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. Figure 12 is a schematic diagram of a transmit / receive link combining BIST based on the structure shown in Figure 11, according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. Figure 13 is a schematic diagram of a transmit / receive link including TX IQ Mod, BIST IQ Mod, and RX IQ De-Mod according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0101] The following describes the transmission and reception links configured based on the transmission link structure according to the embodiments of this disclosure.

[0102] As shown in Figure 10, the transmit / receive link may include a transmit link and a receive link, etc. The transmit link (i.e., the transmitter) may include sequentially connected digital baseband signal sources (Baseband), direct digital frequency synthesizers (TXDDFS), IQ digital-to-analog converters (IQ DACs), low-pass filters (LPFs), IQ modulators (IQ modulators), power amplifiers (PAs), etc. Simultaneously, the signal amplified by the power amplifier is radiated through the transmit antenna into a predetermined spatial region. The receive link may include sequentially connected low-noise amplifiers (LNAs), real mixers (Real Mixers), trans-impedance amplifiers (TIAs), low-pass filters (LPFs), high-pass filters (HPFs), real digital-to-analog converters (Real ADCs), etc. In other words, the echo signal received by the receiving antenna is sequentially processed by the LNA, Real Mixer, TIA, LPF, HPF, and Real ADC mentioned above, and then converted into a real-number digital baseband signal. A subsequent digital signal processing module then processes this real-number digital baseband signal to obtain target parameter information such as distance, velocity, angle, height, and micromotion characteristics.

[0103] In the above-described transmit / receive link, the frequencies of the TX-LO signal received by the IQ modulator in the transmit link and the RX-LO signal received by the Real Mixer in the receive link may be the same. For example, as shown in Figure 10, if the signal output by the Baseband is a sine wave of x MHz, then the TX-LO signal and the RX-LO signal may both be sine waves of z GHz.

[0104] In the embodiment shown in Figure 10, the transmit link employs a digital phase shift architecture, while the receive link employs elements of an analog architecture, i.e., it does not employ IQ elements. Therefore, it is effectively compatible with the sensors of the analog architecture receive link, and the development cost of the entire transmit / receive link system can be effectively reduced.

[0105] As an option, in the embodiments of the present invention, the receiving link may include a receiving antenna. That is, the receiving antenna may be connected via a peripheral port of the chip and formed on a carrier such as a PCB substrate. On the other hand, in some selective embodiments, the receiving antenna may be integrated on the chip package to form an AiP or AoP, and have a chip structure with the antenna packaged.

[0106] In some selective embodiments, relevant adjustments may be made to the receive link to match the transmit link of the digital phase shifter architecture. The transmit and receive links shown in Figure 11 may include similar transmit and receive link architectures based on Figure 10 (to avoid duplication, the same parts are not specifically described). The Real Mixer in the receive link of Figure 10 is adjusted to an IQ Demodulator, and the Real ADC is adjusted to an IQ ADC. In this case, the receive link may include sequentially connected low-noise amplifiers (LNAs), IQ Demodulators, transimpedance amplifiers (TIAs), low-pass filters (LPFs), high-pass filters (HPFs), IQ digital-to-analog converters (IQADCs), etc. The echo signal received by the receiving antenna is sequentially processed by the LNA, IQ Demodulator, TIA, LPF, HPF, and IQ ADC, and then converted to an IQ digital baseband signal. A subsequent digital signal processing module processes the IQ digital baseband signal to obtain target parameter information such as distance, velocity, angle, height, and micromotion characteristics (i.e., micro-Doppler).

[0107] On the other hand, when performing self-calibration based on the transmit / receive link shown in Figure 11, if the signal output port of the transmit link and the signal input port of the receive link are directly connected via a transmission line, that is, the transmit link directly transmits the transmit signal to the receive link via the transmission line, thereby realizing self-calibration of the receive link and / or transmit link without going through the transmit antenna and the receive antenna. In this case, there is a certain frequency offset between the TX-LO signal received by the IQ modulator in the transmit link and the RX-LO signal received by the IQ Demodulator in the receive link. For example, as shown in Figure 11, if the signal output by the baseband is a sine wave of x MHz, the TX-LO signal may be a sine wave of z GHz, in which case the RX-LO signal is converted into a digital signal for TX IQ unbalanced calibration after going through a downmixer (i.e., the IQ Demodulator in the receive link), low-pass filtering, and high-pass filtering.

[0108] In some selective embodiments, as shown in Figure 11, the transmit link (e.g., Transmitter, TX) can be calibrated by adding a receive link (e.g., Receiver, RX), and the TXIQ unbalanced compensation unit in the transmit link can perform compensation operations based on the calibrated data. Alternatively, the transmit link (Transmitter, TX) can be calibrated by multiplexing the receive link (Receiver, RX shown in the figure) that is actually used for transmitting and receiving signals, and the TX IQ unbalanced compensation unit in the transmit link and / or receive link can perform compensation operations based on the calibrated data. Figure 11 shows a signal link with TX IQ unbalance. Since the signal link for the TX harmonic signal problem and the signal link with TX IQ unbalance operate on the same principle, the TX IQ unbalanced compensation unit in Figure 11 can be replaced with a TX HD3 compensation unit to solve the TX HD3 problem. Similar implementations are possible in other embodiments, and for the sake of simplicity, further explanation is omitted.

[0109] In some selective embodiments, based on the structure shown in Figure 11, an internal self-test module (Built-in Self-Test, abbreviated as BIST) is installed in the RX-LO port of the IQ Demodulator of the receiving link shown in Figure 11 to achieve accurate calibration of the transmit / receive link. That is, as shown in Figure 12, based on the transmit / receive link structure shown in Figure 11, an IQ BIST architecture is installed in the RX-LO port of the IQ Demodulator of the receiving link, and an LO signal with a preset frequency offset is input to the RX-LO port of the IQ Demodulator of the receiving link. For example, an IQ BIST, which consists of a phase angle converter and an IQ modulator, uses the received TX-LO signal to pass through the phase angle converter to the IQ modulator, and inputs the frequency-offset signal based on the frequency offset signal of another input signal BIST-LO of the IQ modulator to the RX-LO port of the IQ Demodulator. For example, if the TX-LO signal is a zGHz sine wave and the BIST-LO signal is a yMHz sine wave, then the frequency-offset signal input to the IQ Demodulator's RX-LO port will be (zGHz-yMHz). Note that x, y, and z are all approximate values ​​between different implementations, and the specific numerical values ​​may be the same or different.

[0110] In some selective embodiments, the transmit link of the digital phase shifter architecture may be calibrated by multiplexing the receive link in the transmit / receive link, based on the IQ BIST architecture of the transmit / receive link structure shown in Figure 12. In other embodiments, the calibration operation of the transmit link using the receive link, and the calibration operation of the receive link using the transmit link, may be realized by multiplexing the corresponding receive or transmit link in the link that actually transmits and receives signals, or by adding a corresponding calibrated receive link or calibrated transmit link to realize the calibration operation of the corresponding transmit or receive link in the link that actually transmits and receives signals.

[0111] As an option, IQBIST may include a phase-angle converter and an IQ modulator that provide calibration for the I and Q channels, respectively, in the transmit link of the digital architecture. The other input signal BIST-LO to the IQ modulator may be a y MHz sine wave that simulates the characteristics of the echo signal formed when the transmit signal is reflected off the target. In Figure 12, x, y, and z are all positive numbers and x ≠ y ≠ z, and are generally between 0 and 1000.

[0112] As an alternative, in the transmit / receive link shown in Figure 12, a TX IQ Imbalance Compensation unit may be installed on the transmit link (e.g., between TXDDFS and IQ DAC) and / or on the receive link (e.g., after Real ADC). That is, the transmit and / or receive signals are supplemented based on the calibration parameters (or coefficients) obtained by the above self-calibration operation, thereby resolving issues such as IQ imbalance.

[0113] In some selective embodiments, based on the structure shown in Figure 12, the above-described IQ BIST module can be installed between the signal output port of the transmit link and the signal input port of the receive link, as shown in Figure 13. That is, the transmit link transmits the transmit signal directly to the receive link via the IQ BIST module, enabling self-calibration operations of the receive link and / or transmit link without going through the transmit and receive antennas.

[0114] Note that in the transmission link structures shown in Figures 11 to 13, only the IQ compensation unit (TX IQ Imbalance compensation) is illustrated. In actual applications, based on actual needs, an LO compensation unit (TX LO propagation compensation), an HD3 compensation unit (TX HD3 compensation), etc. may be added to the transmission link to configure a compensation unit (TX compensation) that includes units such as an LO compensation unit (TX LO propagation compensation), an IQ compensation unit (TX IQ Imbalance compensation), and / or an HD3 compensation unit (TX HD3 compensation).

[0115] Figure 14 is a schematic diagram of a transmit / receive link including an auxiliary circuit and a BIST IQ Mod according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. Figure 15 is a schematic diagram of another transmit / receive link including an auxiliary circuit and a BIST IQ Mod according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0116] As shown in Figure 14, the transmit / receive link may include a transmit link, a receive link, and a calibration link, in combination with the structure and related descriptions shown in Figures 9 and 13. The transmit link may include sequentially connected TX digital baseband signal source (TX Baseband), direct digital frequency synthesizer (TX DDFS), compensation unit (Compensation), IQ digital-to-analog converter (IQDAC), low-pass filter (LPF), IQ modulator (IQ Modulator), and power amplifier (PA), etc. Simultaneously, the signal amplified by the power amplifier is radiated through the transmit antenna into a predetermined spatial region. The receiving link may include a series of connected components such as a low-noise amplifier (LNA), a real mixer, a trans-impedance amplifier (TIA), a high-pass filter (HPF), a variable gain amplifier (VGA), a real-to-digital-to-analog converter (RealADC), and an RX Baseband for TXRF calibration. That is, the echo signal received by the receiving antenna is processed by the LNA, Real Mixer, TIA, HPF, VGA, RealADC, etc., and converted into a real-digital baseband signal. A subsequent digital signal processing module can then process this real-digital baseband signal to obtain target parameter information such as distance, velocity, angle, height, and micro-motion characteristics.

[0117] The transmission link may include units such as an LO compensation unit (TX LO propagation compensation), an IQ compensation unit (TX IQ Imbalance compensation), and an HD3 compensation unit (TX HD3 compensation) via a compensation unit (TX compensation) provided between the TX DDFS and the IQ DAC. This enables compensation operations corresponding to LO propagation, IQ imbalance, and HD3 in the transmission link of the digital phase shifter architecture.

[0118] In some selective embodiments, a calibration module may be further provided between the transmit link and the receive link. The calibration compensation unit is configured to multiplex the receive link and perform calibration and other operations on the transmit link of the digital phase shifter architecture described above. Meanwhile, the compensation unit can perform compensation operations on the transmit signal at the transmit link end based on parameters or coefficients obtained by the calibration operations of the calibration module. In other embodiments, a corresponding receive compensation unit may be provided simultaneously or separately in the receive link. That is, in this case, the receive compensation unit may perform compensation of the echo signal at the receive link end based on parameters or coefficients obtained by the calibration operations described above.

[0119] As shown in Figure 14, the calibration module described above may include a BIST unit and an auxiliary circuit unit. That is, the output port of the transmit link is connected to one of the nodes between the Real Mixer and the Real ADC in the transmit link via the BIST unit and the auxiliary circuit unit. The IQ Modulator in the transmit link generates a radio frequency signal of (z GHz ± x MHz) based on a digital phase-shifted baseband signal of x MHz and a LO signal of z GHz, and then outputs it to the BIST unit via the output port. The BIST unit performs a frequency offset operation of y MHz on the received radio frequency signal to obtain an analog echo signal of (z GHz ± x MHz ± y MHz), and after downconverting it using the IQ De-Modulator in the auxiliary unit, obtains a preset intermediate frequency signal (z GHz ± x MHz ± y MHz - z GHz = ± x MHz ± y MHz). This intermediate frequency signal is then input to a preset node in the receive link to perform the calibration operation of the transmit link.

[0120] As an option, the auxiliary circuit unit may be a quadrature demodulator circuit, and the output terminal of the auxiliary circuit unit may be connected to any node between the TIA and HPF, between the HPF and VGA, or between the VGA and Real ADC in the receive link. Also, in order to maximize the multiplexing of the receive link structure, the output port of one transmit link may pass through the BIST unit and the auxiliary circuit unit, and then connect the two branches I and Q to different transmit links, i.e., one transmit link is calibrated by multiplexing two receive links, as shown in Figure 14. After the calibration of the transmit link is completed, compensation units such as the LO compensation unit (TX LO leakage compensation), IQ compensation unit (TX IQ Imbalance compensation), and / or HD3 compensation unit (TX HD3 compensation) in the above compensation module (TX compensation) can be used. This enables compensation operations for problems such as LO leakage, IQ Imbalance, and HD3 in the transmit link of the digital phase shifter architecture based on the parameters obtained by calibration.

[0121] In some selective embodiments, the above BIST unit may include sequentially connected phase-angle converters and IQ modulators. The auxiliary circuit unit may include sequentially connected LNAs, IQ de-modulators, and TIAs. That is, the phase-angle converter receives the radio frequency signal output from the transmit link, and the IQ modulator has one input terminal connected to the output terminal of the phase-angle converter and the other input terminal receives the y MHz BIST-LO signal to generate a preset echo signal. The LNA amplifies the received echo signal and transmits it to one input terminal of the IQ de-modulator, and the other input terminal of the IQ de-modulator receives the z GHz RX-LO signal. The two output branches of the IQ de-modulator (i.e., the I branch and the Q branch) are then connected to the corresponding nodes in the corresponding receive links via the TIA, outputting the generated preset intermediate frequency signals to the two receive links, thereby enabling calibration operations and more efficiently multiplexing the receive link design.

[0122] Furthermore, in the calibration operation according to the embodiments of this disclosure, when the transmission link transmits a frequency sweep signal, the TX LO signal can be used as a monophonic signal in the actual calibration operation to perform calibration on a node-by-node basis. It is also possible to perform a high-bandwidth calibration operation using the TX LO signal as a frequency sweep signal. Moreover, it is possible to perform a calibration operation for frequency sweep signals across the entire frequency band at once using frequency sweep bandwidth calibration.

[0123] Based on the structure shown in Figure 14, in the transmission link of the digital phase shifter architecture, it is possible to further suppress, for example, HD3, LO Leakage, IQ Imbalance, etc., to a predetermined level by cascading at least two BIST units. As shown in Figure 15, two BIST units connected in series can suppress the noise due to the above defects to about -50 dB, effectively reducing the difficulty of developing and designing the related link analog devices.

[0124] In some selective embodiments, when performing calibration and compensation operations for IQ Imbalance based on the transmit link of the digital phase shifter architecture described in the embodiments of the present application, a compensation coefficient for IQ Imbalance can be obtained based on spectral analysis in the time domain and based on spectral peak ratio in the frequency domain.

[0125] In some selective embodiments, the accuracy of the IQ Imbalance compensation coefficient can be further improved by approximating it to an ideal compensation coefficient using an iterative calibration and compensation method, or by obtaining an ideal compensation coefficient using a multi-observation calibration and compensation method.

[0126] For example, in the iterative calibration and compensation method, the decision to stop the iterative operation is made based on whether the magnitude relationship between the compensation coefficients of the preceding and succeeding calibration and compensation operations, or the difference between the compensation coefficients of the two calibration and compensation operations, satisfies a predetermined iteration condition. The compensation coefficient obtained when the iterative operation is stopped can then be used as the final compensation coefficient for the current scene for subsequent operations. In the multi-observation calibration and compensation method, after performing calibration and compensation operations multiple times (e.g., three times), an FFT (Fast Fourier Transform) is performed on the measurement data obtained in each operation to obtain corresponding amplitude and phase information. Then, the measurements are differended and normalized to obtain related data, and an observation matrix can be constructed. Subsequently, the corresponding compensation coefficients are determined in reverse based on the data obtained by inversely calculating the observation matrix.

[0127] In some selective embodiments, compensation coefficients for LO leakage and / or HD3 can also be obtained using iterative calibration and compensation methods or multi-observation calibration and compensation methods, based on a similar concept to the IQ Imbalance compensation coefficient described above.

[0128] In each of the above examples of oscillators with compensation units, the problem of harmonic distortion in the oscillator was addressed. Research revealed that some harmonic distortions may be caused by devices within the oscillator that include nonlinear characteristics, such as mixers.

[0129] Using Figure 16 as an example, Figure 16 is a schematic diagram of the structure of a mixer 421 according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. As shown in Figure 16, the mixer 421 comprises a voltage-current converter (V / I Converter), a current switch, and a current-voltage converter (I / V Converter). The voltage-current converter converts a received voltage signal into a current signal. The current switch is connected to the voltage-current converter and the second signal generator and is used to process the current signal output from the voltage-current converter using a local oscillator signal. The current-voltage converter is connected to the current switch and is used to convert the current signal output by the current switch into a voltage signal.

[0130] In the above structure, a transistor amplifier is provided in the voltage-current converter. Due to the nonlinear characteristics of the transistor amplifier and the low frequency characteristics of the baseband signal, the current signal output by the voltage-current converter contains harmonic signals corresponding to the baseband signal. For example, a harmonic (HD) caused by a third-order nonlinearity in the baseband can be abbreviated as HD3. Similarly, a harmonic caused by a fifth-order nonlinearity is called HD5. When the current signal output from the voltage-current converter is processed by the current switch, the harmonic frequencies are converted to the radio frequency band through upconversion. The complexity of the operation to suppress harmonic signals in the radio frequency band is high, resulting in high hardware costs. If harmonic signals in the radio frequency band are not removed, it will affect the signal quality of radar transmission and reception, and further affect the accuracy of radar measurements.

[0131] The compensation unit is used to cancel out harmonic signals in the radio frequency signal by inputting the generated cancellation signal to the signal transmission link. The compensation unit and the first signal generator are independent of each other.

[0132] Therefore, the compensation unit may include a cancellation signal generator. By utilizing the cancellation signal output from the compensation unit, harmonic signals in the radio frequency signal can be suppressed, the harmonic components in the radio frequency signal can be reduced, and the signal quality of the radio frequency signal output from the transmitter can be improved.

[0133] According to embodiments of this disclosure, the compensation unit inputs a generated cancellation signal to the signal transmission link using feedback or according to the characteristics of the transmitted wave, thereby canceling out the harmonic signals in the radio frequency signal output from the signal transmission link. The cancellation signal has characteristics such as being in opposite phase to the harmonic signals transmitted in the radio frequency transmission circuit and having a similar amplitude, thereby achieving the objective of suppressing the harmonic signals.

[0134] In some examples, the compensation unit generates a compensation signal that includes a cancellation effect based on parameters such as the phase, frequency, or amplitude of the baseband signal generated by the first signal generator, and consequently, the path length fused with the LO signal.

[0135] For example, Figure 5 shows an example of a compensation unit accessing an oscillator in a signal transmission link. In the structure shown in Figure 5, the compensation unit is a TX compensation unit. The TX compensation unit includes a generator (not shown) that generates a cancellation signal according to the characteristics of the transmitted wave. An example of the cancellation signal generator is the TX HD3 compensation unit shown in Figure 6.

[0136] The baseband processor (abbreviated as baseband frame in Figure 5) controls the quadrature digital baseband signal generated by the TX DDFS. The TX compensation unit generates a quadrature compensation signal based on the parameters of the quadrature digital signal, merges the quadrature compensation signal with the quadrature digital signal, and transmits it to the IQ DAC to convert it into an analog baseband signal. After LPF filtering, mixing is performed in the mixer (i.e., the IQ modulator in Figure 5) to obtain a radio frequency signal by mixing the TX LO signal and the analog baseband signal, and the PA amplifies the mixed signal and outputs it via the transmitting antenna. This compensation signal cancels out at least some harmonic signals, such as the HD3 harmonic signal in the radio frequency transmission circuit. Therefore, clutter in the transmitted radio frequency signal is significantly reduced. The radio frequency signal may also be an FMCW signal.

[0137] In another example, the compensation unit generates a compensation signal based on harmonic information fed back by the radio frequency transmission circuit. Referring to Figure 17, which is a schematic diagram of the structure of the compensation unit in the transmitter shown in Figure 5. As shown in Figure 17, the compensation unit includes a sampling circuit and a cancel signal generator.

[0138] The sampling circuit is coupled to the radio frequency transmission circuit and is used to collect signals within the radio frequency transmission circuit to obtain a sampled signal. The sampled signal (or sampling signal) can reflect waveform information (also called harmonic parameters) in the harmonic signal, such as the phase of the main frequency signal, the phase of the harmonic signal, the frequency of the harmonic signal, the frequency of the main frequency signal, the power of the harmonic signal, and so on.

[0139] Furthermore, the harmonic parameters reflected in the collection signal are related to the information contained in the signals that the collection circuit can collect. For example, if the collection circuit is a type of power collection circuit, the corresponding collection signal includes the power of the main frequency. Also, if the collection circuit utilizes at least some of the circuits of the receiver, the collection signal reflects the phase of the main frequency signal, the phase of the harmonic signals, the frequencies of the harmonic signals, the frequencies of the main frequency signal, the power of the harmonic signals, the power of the main frequency signal, and so on.

[0140] At least one of the above harmonic parameters may be extracted by analog circuitry. For example, the power of the dominant frequency signal may be output via a coupler and a power detector. Alternatively, the harmonic parameters may be extracted by taking advantage of the frequency domain computational capabilities of digital circuitry within the radar chip. For example, by coupling a radio frequency transmission circuit, the same signal transmitted at the coupling point is obtained as the collected signal. The collected signal contains both the dominant frequency signal and the harmonic signals. The collected signal is converted into a digital signal by an ADC and passed to digital circuitry for computation in the frequency domain to obtain more harmonic parameters.

[0141] In one embodiment, the input terminal of the sampling circuit is connected to the output terminal or signal detection terminal of the mixer. This method can detect harmonic signals generated by the voltage-current converter and has a simplified sampling circuit. For example, in the connection method with the structure shown in Figures 18 and 19, the input terminal of the sampling circuit is connected to the detection terminal between the voltage-current converter and the current switch and coupled to the ADC.

[0142] In another embodiment, the input terminal of the sampling circuit is connected to the radio frequency output terminal or radio frequency detection terminal of the radio frequency transmission circuit. The radio frequency output terminal may be the output terminal of the radio frequency transmission circuit. The radio frequency detection terminal may be the input terminal or output terminal of at least one PA stage in the radio frequency transmission circuit. This method allows for the sampling of more accurate harmonic parameters in the radio frequency transmission circuit, but it has a complex circuit structure.

[0143] In some chips, including the BIST module, the sampling circuit can acquire the sampling signal through some or all of the circuitry within the BIST module. For example, as shown in Figure 19, the input terminal of the sampling circuit is coupled to a radio frequency output terminal, which sequentially includes a downconverter, filter, etc., and an IQ ADC is connected to output a digital sampling signal. The downconverter, filter, etc. can be multiplexed with the BIST module or receiver.

[0144] The collected collected signal is input to a cancel signal generator. The cancel signal generator is at least one circuit in the compensation unit. The cancel signal generator is connected to the first signal generator, so that the signal received by the radio frequency transmission circuit includes both the baseband signal and the cancel signal simultaneously.

[0145] For example, the cancel signal generator includes the cancel signal generator described above and a digital circuit for extracting harmonic information. The digital circuit for extracting harmonic information may be configured independently, or at least a part of it may be shared with the digital circuit in the radar chip.

[0146] The digital circuit for extracting harmonic information uses a digital circuit that processes the difference frequency baseband signal within the radar chip to extract harmonic information such as harmonic frequency, dominant frequency, and dominant frequency power, and supplies it to a cancel signal generator. The cancel signal generator generates a cancel signal based on the received parameters.

[0147] Furthermore, a digital circuit for extracting harmonic information extracts the principal frequency amplitude in the collected signal and calculates the harmonic amplitude from the difference between the principal frequency amplitude and the harmonic amplitude, which are set in advance. A cancellation signal generator generates a harmonic signal compensation signal based on the calculated harmonic amplitude and other set harmonic parameters. Each of these set harmonic parameters can be calculated based on the frequency sweep signal range, phase, etc., of the principal frequency signal that the radar chip is transmitting.

[0148] The cancel signal generator in the aforementioned cancel signal generator may be configured independently of the first signal generator, or may share at least partially with it. For example, the cancel signal generated by the cancel signal generator is input to the first signal generator, and the baseband signal output by the first signal generator includes the cancel signal. The cancel signal generator may also include a third harmonic generator and a fifth harmonic generator.

[0149] Furthermore, the compensation unit further includes an adder that combines a cancel signal generator and a first signal generator, and merges the baseband signal generated by the first signal generator with the cancel signal generated by the cancel signal generator. In this embodiment, the cancel signal includes a cancel signal Signal_HD3 that cancels the third harmonic generated by the third harmonic generator, and a cancel signal Signal_HD5 that cancels the fifth harmonic generated by the fifth harmonic generator. The cancel signals Signal_HD3, Signal_HD5, and the baseband signal generated by the first signal generator are merged by the adder and output to the radio frequency transmission circuit.

[0150] As can be seen from the above, each circuit example of an oscillator that uses the feedback method according to the present invention to input a cancellation signal to the radio frequency transmission circuit in advance can ensure that the radio frequency signal transmitted by the chip contains sufficiently low harmonic signals under different environmental conditions.

[0151] To effectively suppress harmonic signals in accordance with the actual operating environment of the chip during use, and to take into account, for example, the influence of ambient temperature on semiconductor devices, the present invention further provides a method for signal cancellation against harmonic signals in the above-mentioned oscillator using a feedback mechanism, which includes the following steps 10 and 20. In step 10, a sampling operation is performed on the signal in the signal transmission link to obtain a sampled signal. The signal transmission link is used to generate a radio frequency signal for radar detection, and the radio frequency signal includes harmonic signals. In step 20, the collection signal is detected, a cancellation signal is generated to cancel out the harmonic signal, and this signal is output to the signal transmission link.

[0152] In the method according to the embodiment of the present invention, a sampling operation is performed on the signal of the signal transmission link to obtain a sampling signal, and a cancellation signal is generated using the sampling signal and output to the signal transmission link. By using the cancellation signal to suppress harmonic signals in the radio frequency signal, the harmonic components in the radio frequency signal are reduced, the signal quality of the radio frequency signal output from the transmitter is improved, and the reception performance of the radio frequency signal of the receiver is improved.

[0153] The following shows examples of transmitters and their operating procedures with reference to Figures 11 to 20.

[0154] For example, Figure 11 shows an example in which harmonic information is extracted from the transmitter using a feedback mechanism, and the compensation unit generates a corresponding cancellation signal. In the structure shown in Figure 11, the compensation unit is assumed to include a TX HD3 compensation unit. The TX HD3 compensation unit generates a compensation signal according to the waveform characteristics of the received signal. The feedback mechanism can be operated in the calibration mode of the radar chip to prevent weakening of the signal transmission power during normal detection by the radar chip.

[0155] The baseband processor within the transmitter (baseband frame in Figure 11) controls the quadrature digital baseband signal generated by the TX DDFS, merges it through the quadrature digital cancel signal generated by the TX compensation unit, and transmits it to the IQ DAC, where it is converted into an analog baseband signal. This analog baseband signal is mixed with an analog cancel signal that cancels out harmonic signals in the transmission link. This analog baseband signal undergoes LPF filtering and enters the first mixer (i.e., the IQ modulator in Figure 11). The first mixer uses the TX LO to mix the received filtered signal to obtain a radio frequency signal. This radio frequency signal is coupled and output via the receiver to the TX HD3 calibration circuit in the compensation unit (TX HD3 calibration frame in Figure 11). The TX HD3 calibration circuit can be considered a digital circuit that extracts harmonic information.

[0156] In the receiver, the LNA amplifies the signal output from the oscillator, then outputs it to a second mixer (i.e., the IQ demodulator in Figure 11) to obtain a demodulated signal. The demodulated signal is then transmitted to a transimpedance amplifier for amplification, and after passing through an LPF and HPF sequentially, it undergoes analog-to-digital conversion via an IQ ADC before being transmitted to the TX HD3 calibration circuit. The TX HD3 calibration circuit extracts the oscillator's harmonic information from the feedback signal, converts it into parameters necessary for generating a cancel signal using a higher-layer controller, and supplies it to the TX HD3 compensation unit. The harmonic information acquired by the TX HD3 calibration circuit includes, for example, one or more parameters of the harmonic signal (or master frequency signal), such as the initial phase, start frequency, cutoff frequency, frequency change time length, and center frequency. Based on the harmonic information, the TX HD3 calibration unit or higher-layer controller determines the parameters for generating the cancel signal in the compensation unit, such as the initial phase, cancel signal frequency, and delay.

[0157] Furthermore, the cancellation operation of harmonics such as the third harmonic and / or fifth harmonic in each of the above examples may be determined according to the requirements of the oscillator.

[0158] In some selective embodiments, when performing calibration and compensation operations for HD3 based on the transmission link of the digital phase shifter architecture described in the embodiments of the present invention, the source of HD3 in the active mixer is mainly the nonlinear third harmonic of the V / I Converter, and therefore this can be implemented by a compensation architecture based on the cube module shown in Figure 18, or a compensation architecture based on the triple frequency multiplier shown in Figure 19.

[0159] Figure 20 is a schematic diagram of the calibration compensation of a transmit link based on a digital phase shifter architecture according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. As shown in Figure 20, based on the relevant technical details of the calibration compensation operations for IQ Imbalance, LO leakage, and HD3 according to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the compensation operation for IQ Imbalance is implemented by compensating for the conjugate signal of the BB (baseband) signal to cancel out the Miller component in the opposite direction, and this compensation operation method is not affected by the IQ Imbalance calibration method. Compensation for LO Leakage can be implemented by adjusting the DC components (i.e., DC bias) of both IQ, and similarly, the LO Leakage calibration method is not affected by the compensation method. For HD3, the third harmonic distortion of the quadrature mixer V / I Converter is the main source of HD3, and since the harmonic distortion is affected by the DC bias, when it is necessary to calibrate both the LO Leakage and HD3 of the transmit link, it is necessary to calibrate HD3 after calibrating the LO Leakage to ensure the accurate performance of the HD3 calibration.

[0160] Furthermore, the HD3 compensation methods, including the digital pre-compensation architecture based on the digital cube module and the digital pre-compensation architecture based on the frequency multiplier module, directly affect the subsequent calibration method and subsequent compensation flow. Specifically, these are shown below. In one selective embodiment, for a digital pre-compensation architecture based on a digital cube module, the LO Leakage is calibrated and compensated, then the root cause of the HD3 problem, i.e., the HD3 compensation coefficient, is calibrated with a stable DC bias, then the IQ Imbalance is calibrated, and after continuing to compensate for the IQ Imbalance, the two channels of IQ are calibrated respectively based on the pre-compensation result of the IQ Imbalance, and the third harmonic distortion is compensated.

[0161] In one selective embodiment, for a digital pre-compensation architecture based on a frequency multiplier module, the LO Leakage is calibrated and compensated, then the HD3 compensation coefficient is calibrated, the IQ Imbalance is calibrated with a stable DC bias, and the IQ Imbalance is compensated. Subsequently, third-harmonic distortion is compensated for the two channels of IQ by the pre-compensated result of the IQ Imbalance through the post-compensated result.

[0162] In other selective embodiments, a digital pre-compensation architecture based on a frequency multiplier module is used, where LO Leakage is calibrated and compensated, the HD3 compensation coefficient is calibrated, the IQ Imbalance is calibrated with a stable DC bias, and the IQ Imbalance is compensated. Subsequently, from the compensated results, the actual waveforms of the two channels of IQ signals and the HD3 compensation coefficient are calculated, respectively, and the waveform information for the 3rd and 5th frequencies requiring pre-compensation is calculated in reverse.

[0163] In other selective embodiments, for a digital pre-compensation architecture based on a frequency multiplier module, the LO Leakage is first calibrated and compensated, then the compensation coefficients for HD3 and IQ Imbalance are simultaneously calibrated by multiple observations (e.g., three times), then the compensation coefficient at the HD3 mirror position is calibrated by further observations (e.g., two times), and finally, the 3rd and 5th frequency coefficients requiring pre-compensation are calculated inversely from the compensation coefficients at HD3 and the HD3 mirror position. Note that the observations in the embodiments of this disclosure are intended to represent operations such as testing and comparative analysis of different test results.

[0164] As can be seen by referring to the structure shown in Figure 20, the collection circuit has two collection branches, which can be dynamically switched. The input terminal of one collection branch is connected between a voltage-current converter and a current switch, and the input terminal of the other collection branch is connected to the output terminal of a power amplifier, and an IQ demodulator is provided on this collection branch. In addition, in the structure shown in Figure 20, the collection circuit is further provided with multiplexers, the input terminals of which are connected to the output terminals of the two collection branches, and the output terminals are for outputting the collection signal.

[0165] In the structures shown in Figures 18 to 20, the sampling signal may be an analog signal, that is, the output terminal of the sampling circuit is connected to an IQ ADC. Alternatively, the sampling signal may be a digital signal, and the sampling circuit includes at least an IQ ADC.

[0166] Furthermore, if the radio frequency signal transmitted over the signal transmission link is not an orthogonal signal, the sampling circuit shown in Figures 18 to 20 can be completed using non-orthogonal elements. For example, a single-ended down-converter mixer may be used instead of an IQ demodulator, and a single-ended analog-to-digital converter may be used instead of an IQ ADC.

[0167] The following describes the calibration link according to the embodiment of this application.

[0168] In the calibration link shown in Figure 7, the calibration link may calibrate the transmit main path including analog phase shift (for example, the signal transmit link shown in Figure 1A), or it may calibrate the transmit main path including digital phase shift (for example, the signal transmit link shown in Figure 4). In addition, in the embodiments of this application, the receive main path may also be calibrated.

[0169] As can be seen from the above description, the system of the embodiment of this disclosure is specifically a calibration link for the signal transmission main path shown in Figure 21A.

[0170] As can be seen by referring to Figure 21A, the signal transmission main path is used to transmit electromagnetic wave signals. The calibration link is integrated into the integrated circuit that includes the signal transmission main path. Because the calibration link is integrated into the integrated circuit that includes the signal transmission main path, the signal transmission main path can be calibrated in real time, eliminating the need for calibration operations of the signal transmission main path by external devices.

[0171] The calibration link is connected at least between the signal transmission main path and the antenna corresponding to the signal transmission main path. Thus, the calibration link and the signal transmission main path constitute a signal transmission operation, supporting calibration operations on the signal transmission main path from the hardware structure.

[0172] Specifically, the calibration link is configured to calibrate the signal transmission main path and obtain calibration information.

[0173] In embodiments of the present invention, the signal transmission main path may be a transmission main path for transmitting a radio frequency signal, or a reception main path for receiving an echo signal.

[0174] If the signal transmission main path is the transmission main path, the calibration link acquires at least the signal output from the signal transmission main path, performs a reception operation based on the signal output from the transmission main path, and obtains calibration information. If the signal transmission main path is the reception main path, the calibration link outputs a signal to at least the reception main path, and obtains calibration information based on the processing result of the signal output from the calibration link of the signal transmission main path.

[0175] Correspondingly, the signal transmission main path is configured to perform calibration operations based on calibration information obtained by the calibration link, and the calibrated signal transmission main path transmits electromagnetic wave signals.

[0176] Since the aforementioned signal transmission main path performs calibration operations based on calibration information, the signal transmission quality of the signal transmission main path can be effectively improved, and the signal quality of the electromagnetic wave signals transmitted by the calibrated signal transmission main path can be improved.

[0177] Furthermore, since the calibration link is integrated into the integrated circuit including the signal transmission main path, the calibration link can calibrate the signal transmission main path in real time as needed. In addition, because the operating environments of the calibration link and the signal transmission main path (e.g., temperature, humidity, aging time) are highly similar, the calibration operation of the calibration link closely matches the operating environment of the signal transmission main path. This allows the calibration link to obtain more accurate calibration information, thereby improving the signal processing performance of the signal transmission main path.

[0178] Under at least one of the following conditions—before the signal transmission main path is shipped and after the signal transmission main path has been put into full use—the calibration link performs a calibration operation on the signal transmission main path.

[0179] The period before the integrated circuit is shipped may include mass production testing, or it may include mass production testing after it has been integrated into wireless equipment.

[0180] During mass production testing, it is possible to simulate different operating environments for the signal transmission main path, and by performing calibration based on these operating environments, relatively general calibration information can be obtained.

[0181] In some selective embodiments, the integrated circuit may be calibrated during mass production testing before shipment or during mass production testing after integration as wireless equipment. The calibration information obtained from the calibration may be stored in a storage medium beforehand, and then the calibration information may be directly retrieved while the wireless equipment is operating to calibrate the transmitted signals.

[0182] After a signal transmission main path is officially put into use as part of a radio system, differences in usage time and operating environment among different radio systems will affect the performance of the signal transmission main path to varying degrees. For this reason, after a signal transmission main path has been officially put into use, it is also possible to calibrate the signal transmission main path using a calibration link.

[0183] Specifically, the calibration link can perform calibration operations on the signal transmission main path at intervals in which the signal transmission main path transmits signals. If the signal transmission main path is a transmit main path, the signal transmission interval may be the idle time between two adjacent radio frequency signal transmission operations. If the signal transmission main path is a receive main path, the signal transmission interval may be the idle time between two adjacent echo signal reception operations.

[0184] In some selective embodiments, the calibration link performs a calibration operation on the signal transmission main path when pre-defined conditions for initiating the calibration operation are met.

[0185] Specifically, based on the impact of changes in the operating environment of an integrated circuit on its performance parameters, and adverse effects such as device aging, conditions for starting a calibration operation can be set, such as a preset time period (e.g., 1 minute, 1 hour, or 1 day). These conditions can be set specifically based on the application scenario. For example, if the primary consideration is the impact of environmental changes, a relatively short time period (e.g., 30 seconds, or the signal gap between frames) can be set. If device aging is considered, it can be set to one year. Non-uniform time segments can also be set based on aging change parameters. On the other hand, conditions for starting calibration can also be set based on changes in the external environment, such as temperature, pressure, and humidity. For example, calibration may be started once when the temperature rises by 5°C, or when the temperature reaches a preset value. Conditions for starting a calibration operation can also be set individually or comprehensively (e.g., when the temperature reaches 80°C and the humidity reaches 70%) in response to parameters such as pressure and humidity. Simultaneously, the current operating status of the integrated circuit or electronic equipment can be predicted or evaluated based on past calibration data. When a preset threshold is reached, operations such as direct warnings or activation of safety functions can also be performed.

[0186] For the main signal transmission path, each time the calibration link completes a calibration operation, it performs a calibration operation using the most recently obtained calibration information and then performs a signal transmission operation using that calibration information. In other words, the calibration link compensates for the transmitted information in real time based on the calibration information obtained from the previous calibration of the calibration link.

[0187] Each time the calibration link completes a calibration operation, the latest calibration information obtained accurately reflects the calibration information in the current operating environment of the signal transmission main path. Therefore, by performing calibration operations using the latest calibration information, the accuracy of the calibration information used in the signal transmission main path can be ensured, contributing to an improvement in the signal transmission quality of the signal transmission main path.

[0188] In one exemplary embodiment, the signal transmitted by the calibration link is a monophonic signal. A monophonic signal is also called a monofrequency signal, that is, a signal with only one constant frequency, and may be a sine or cosine signal. The frequency of the monophonic signal can be set according to the circuit structure that receives the monophonic signal.

[0189] When performing calibration operations on the main signal transmission path, using a single tone signal as the calibration signal transmitted via the calibration link reduces the complexity of signal processing during the calibration operation and improves calibration efficiency.

[0190] Furthermore, if the signal transmitted by the calibration link is an orthogonal signal, then the elements of the calibration link are orthogonal devices.

[0191] Figure 21B is a schematic diagram of the arrangement of the calibration link shown in Figure 21A. As shown in Figure 21B, the integrated circuit is provided with at least two of the signal transmission main paths. The at least two signal transmission main paths are usually at least two main paths with the same signal transmission function, for example, both being transmit main paths or both being receive main paths.

[0192] In integrated circuits, main paths with the same signal transmission function are typically located in the same area of ​​the circuit board, and there is a gap between two adjacent main paths.

[0193] Taking into account signal transmission interference and losses due to signal transmission distance, a calibration link may be provided between two adjacent signal transmission main paths that have the same signal transmission function, and the calibration link may be connected to each of the two signal transmission main paths. In this way, at least one calibration link may be provided in the integrated circuit. One of the calibration links may be configured to calibrate at least two of the signal transmission main paths.

[0194] Furthermore, the electromagnetic wave signal may be a radar signal, and the signal transmission main path includes an echo signal receiving main path and / or a radio frequency signal transmission main path.

[0195] Figure 22A is a schematic diagram of the connection between a calibration link and a transmit main path according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. As shown in Figure 22A, the calibration link corresponds to an auxiliary receive link corresponding to the transmit main path. The auxiliary receive link is connected between the transmit main path and the corresponding transmit antenna and may be configured to calibrate the radio frequency signals transmitted on the transmit main path.

[0196] In one exemplary embodiment, the transmit main path includes an intermediate frequency processing circuit and a radio frequency processing circuit. The intermediate frequency processing circuit is used to process the baseband signal to obtain an intermediate frequency signal, and the radio frequency processing circuit is used to process the intermediate frequency signal to obtain a radio frequency signal.

[0197] The auxiliary receiving link first performs a calibration operation on the intermediate frequency processing circuit in the transmitting unit, so that the intermediate frequency signal output from the intermediate frequency processing circuit after calibration is the calibrated signal. In this way, the quality of the signal received by the radio frequency processing circuit is improved and errors in the calibration process of the radio frequency processing circuit caused by the input signal are reduced.

[0198] After the intermediate frequency processing circuit calibration is completed, the radio frequency processing circuit in the transmitting unit is recalibrated using a calibration unit. By using the signal output from the calibrated intermediate frequency processing circuit as the input signal to the radio frequency processing circuit, the influence of performance deviations in the intermediate frequency processing circuit on the calibration of the radio frequency processing circuit can be reduced, and the accuracy of the calibration operation of the radio frequency processing circuit can be improved.

[0199] Furthermore, the calibration link further includes a calibration transmission link corresponding to the auxiliary receiving link, the calibration transmission link is configured to perform a calibration operation on the auxiliary receiving link, and accordingly, the auxiliary transmission link performs a calibration operation based on the calibration information obtained by the calibration receiving link, and the calibrated auxiliary receiving link performs a calibration operation on the transmission main path.

[0200] By performing calibration operations on the auxiliary receiving link using the calibrated transmission link, the signal processing performance of the auxiliary receiving link can be improved. By performing calibration on the transmission main path using the auxiliary receiving link with improved signal performance, the accuracy of the calibration operation on the transmission main path can be improved.

[0201] Figures 22B and 22C are schematic diagrams of the connection between a calibration link and a receiving main path according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. As shown in Figure 22B, the calibration link includes a corresponding auxiliary transmission link that corresponds to the receiving main path.

[0202] The receiving main path includes a radio frequency unit and an intermediate frequency unit that are sequentially connected to the receiving antenna. The intermediate frequency unit is used to perform intermediate frequency processing on the received signal and output it to the radio frequency unit. The radio frequency unit is used to perform radio frequency processing on the signal output from the intermediate frequency unit and output it. The calibration link includes at least one of a radio frequency auxiliary transmission link and an intermediate frequency auxiliary transmission link.

[0203] Referring to Figure 22B, the intermediate frequency auxiliary transmit link may be connected to the intermediate frequency signal output terminal of the receiving main path and configured to calibrate the intermediate frequency signal obtained by down-converting the echo signal received by the receiving main path. The intermediate frequency unit may be configured to perform calibration operations based on the calibration information obtained by the intermediate frequency auxiliary transmit link. After calibration, the intermediate frequency unit performs signal processing on the signal output by the radio frequency unit.

[0204] Referring to Figure 22B, the radio frequency auxiliary transmit link may be connected between the receiving main path and the corresponding receiving antenna and configured to calibrate the echo signal received by the receiving main path. The radio frequency unit may be configured to perform calibration operations based on the calibration information obtained by the radio frequency auxiliary transmit link. After calibration, the radio frequency unit performs signal processing on the echo signal received via the receiving antenna.

[0205] If the auxiliary transmission link includes an intermediate frequency auxiliary transmission link and a radio frequency auxiliary transmission link, the calibration operation can be performed on the receiving main path by the following steps: that is, the steps may include performing a calibration operation on the intermediate frequency unit using the intermediate frequency auxiliary transmission link, calibrating the radio frequency auxiliary transmission link using the calibrated intermediate frequency unit, and calibrating the radio frequency unit using the calibrated radio frequency auxiliary transmission link.

[0206] By calibrating the radio frequency auxiliary transmission link using the calibrated intermediate frequency unit, the signal processing performance of the radio frequency auxiliary transmission link can be improved. By calibrating the radio frequency unit using the radio frequency auxiliary transmission link with improved signal performance, the accuracy of the radio frequency unit calibration operation can be improved.

[0207] As an alternative, as shown in Figures 22A, 22B, and 22C, a power detector (PD) may be provided between the signal transmission main path and the antenna, and the PD may be used to detect power information of the signal main path.

[0208] In Figures 22A and 22C, the calibration link may be connected between the PD and the signal transmission main path to enable calibration operations on the signal transmission main path. Alternatively, the calibration link may be connected between the PD and the antenna to enable calibration operations on both the signal transmission main path and the PD.

[0209] The following explains each link in the proofreading section.

[0210] Figures 23A, 23B, 23C, and 23D are schematic diagrams of the structure of each link in the calibration link corresponding to the main transmit path in an embodiment of the present disclosure. Figure 23A is a schematic diagram of the structure of the auxiliary receive link in Figure 22A. As shown in Figure 23A, the auxiliary receive link includes a first mixer configured to perform mixing processing on the received signal using a local oscillator signal used for receiving operations, a first power amplifier configured to perform amplification processing on the signal output by the first mixer, a first filtering unit configured to perform filtering processing on the received signal to obtain a filtered signal, and a first real-digital-to-analog converter configured to convert a digital filtered signal into an analog filtered signal.

[0211] The circuit consisting of the first mixer and the first power amplifier is used to simulate the radio frequency processing function in the main path for receiving the echo signal. The circuit consisting of the first filtering unit and the first real-number digital-to-analog converter is used to simulate the intermediate frequency processing function in the main path for receiving the echo signal. As can be seen from the signal transmission function, the above auxiliary receiving link can also be used to constitute a signal receiving link.

[0212] Figure 23B is a schematic diagram of another structure of the auxiliary receiving link of Figure 23A. As shown in Figure 23B, the auxiliary receiving link further includes a first adder connected to the first real-number digital-to-analog converter and configured to compensate the signal output by the first real-number digital-to-analog converter based on a leak signal of the local oscillator signal used in the first mixer.

[0213] The first adder compensates for the leakage problem of the local oscillator signal used in the first mixer in the auxiliary transmission link by compensating the signal output from the first real-number digital-to-analog converter, thereby ensuring the accuracy of the signal transmitted in the auxiliary reception link.

[0214] Figure 23C is a schematic diagram of the structure of the calibration transmission link shown in Figure 22A. As shown in Figure 23C, the calibration transmission link includes a first signal generator configured to output a digital original signal, a second real-number digital-to-analog converter configured to convert the digital original signal into an analog original signal, a second filtering unit configured to perform filtering on the original signal to obtain a filtered signal, a second power amplifier configured to perform amplification on the filtered signal to obtain an amplified signal, and a second mixer configured to perform mixing on the amplified signal using a local oscillator signal used for transmission operations.

[0215] The circuit consisting of a first signal generator and a second real-number digital-to-analog converter is used to simulate the intermediate frequency processing function in the main transmission path of a radio frequency signal. The circuit consisting of a second power amplifier and a second mixer is used to simulate the radio frequency processing function in the main transmission path of a radio frequency signal. As can be seen from the signal transmission function, the above auxiliary receiving link can also be used to constitute a signal transmission link.

[0216] Figure 23D is a schematic diagram of another structure of the calibration transmission link shown in Figure 23C. As shown in Figure 23D, the calibration transmission link further includes at least one of a second adder and a bandpass filter (BPF). The second adder is connected between the first signal generator and the second real-digital-to-analog converter and is configured to compensate the signal output by the first signal generator based on the leakage signal of the local oscillator signal used in the second mixer. The bandpass filter is connected to the second mixer and is configured to filter the signal output by the second mixer and transmit the filtered signal to the calibration unit.

[0217] The first adder compensates for the leakage problem of the local oscillator signal in the calibration transmission link by compensating for the signal output from the first signal generator, thereby ensuring the accuracy of the signal output from the calibration transmission link.

[0218] The BPF may be configured to filter DC signals caused by LO leakage in the calibration transmit link. That is, the calibration auxiliary transmit unit may be configured to generate multiple stable monotone (tone) signals of different frequencies to perform calibration operations on the auxiliary receive link.

[0219] The local oscillator signals used for the calibration transmission link and the local oscillator signals used for the auxiliary reception link use the same local oscillator signal generation circuit, resulting in a difference in the frequencies of the two local oscillator signals. For example, the RF Tone GEN LO-Calibration Unit LO = 5MHz or 10MHz condition can be met.

[0220] Figure 24 is a schematic diagram illustrating the application of a calibration link corresponding to the transmit main path according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. As shown in Figure 24, the auxiliary receive link may include a mixer, TIA, LPF, HPF, IQ ADC, adder, and RF calibration module (RF Calib) connected sequentially. That is, one input terminal of the mixer receives the local oscillator signal, and the other input terminal is connected along the signal transmission direction (i.e., the direction of the arrow in the figure) to a node before the transmit main path PD, or to any node after the phase shifter (module). For example, it is connected to the output terminal of the PA (to synchronously perform calibration on the PA), the input terminal of the PA, etc., and calibration operations are performed on the transmit path via the calibration unit. There is a set difference frequency between the frequency of the local oscillator signal in the transmit main path and the frequency of the local oscillator signal in the auxiliary receive link, thereby creating a frequency shift between the two signals and simulating the actual transmit and receive signal circuit.

[0221] In one selective embodiment, to further improve calibration accuracy, a corresponding calibration circuit (i.e., a calibration transmit link unit) may be provided for the auxiliary receive link. For example, the calibration transmit link shown in Figure 24 may include a sequentially connected TX DDFS, adder, Real DAC, LPF, amplifier, multiplier, and bandpass filter (BPF). The adder may be configured to perform calibration compensation for TX LO leakage (TX LO leakage waveform). The multiplier may be configured to compensate for RF tone generation LO leakage. The BPF may be configured to filter DC signals due to LO leakage from the calibration auxiliary unit. That is, the calibration auxiliary unit may be configured to generate multiple stable tone signals of different frequencies to perform calibration operations on the calibration unit.

[0222] In some selective embodiments, as shown in Figure 24, the auxiliary transmit link may first be calibrated using a calibrated transmit link, and then the main transmit path (transmitter), including, for example, a PA, may be calibrated using the calibrated auxiliary receive link unit. This includes, for example, calibration of devices and circuits such as the PD at the PA output terminal, the phase shifter in the main transmit path, the total gain of the output from the DAC to the PA, and the frequency response.

[0223] Specifically, as shown in Figure 24, the auxiliary receiving link unit is first calibrated by generating multiple stable monophonic signals of different frequencies using the calibration transmit link. Then, based on the calibrated auxiliary receiving link, problems such as IQ imbalance, local oscillator leakage, and frequency response mismatch in the transmit main path can be calibrated.

[0224] Figures 25A, 25B, 25C, and 25D are schematic diagrams of the structure of each link in the calibration link corresponding to the receiving main path in an embodiment of the present disclosure. Figure 25A is a schematic diagram of the first structure of the intermediate frequency auxiliary transmit link in Figure 22A. As shown in Figure 25A, the intermediate frequency auxiliary transmit link includes a first signal source and a third real-number digital-to-analog converter, the first signal source being configured to output a digital intermediate frequency calibration signal, and the third real-number digital-to-analog converter being configured to convert the digital intermediate frequency calibration signal to an analog intermediate frequency calibration signal. The frequency of the intermediate frequency calibration signal may be set based on the frequency of the signal received by the intermediate frequency unit.

[0225] By generating a digital intermediate frequency calibration signal using the first signal source, the efficiency of intermediate frequency calibration signal generation can be improved. Furthermore, the signal is converted by a third real-number digital-to-analog converter to obtain a signal that the intermediate frequency unit can receive.

[0226] In one exemplary embodiment, the first signal source may perform frequency division on the received digital signal, and the frequency of the signal obtained by frequency division is within the frequency range supported by the intermediate frequency unit.

[0227] In other exemplary embodiments, the signal may be processed by a digital phase shifter, and the signal processed by the digital phase shifter may be used as an intermediate frequency calibration signal. For example, as shown in Figure 25A, the first signal source includes a second signal generator and a digital phase shift module, the second signal generator being configured to generate an initial signal, and the digital phase shift module being configured to perform frequency shift and / or phase shift processing on the initial signal using a digital quadrature modulation scheme.

[0228] Figure 25B is a schematic diagram of the second structure of the intermediate frequency auxiliary transmission link shown in Figure 22A. As shown in Figure 25B, the intermediate frequency auxiliary transmission link includes a fourth real-number digital-to-analog converter, a third mixer, and a first squarer. The fourth real-number digital-to-analog converter is configured to convert a preset digital signal into an analog signal. The third mixer is configured to perform a mixing process on the signal output by the fourth real-number digital-to-analog converter and the local oscillator signal to obtain a mixed signal. The first squarer is configured to perform a squaring process on the mixed signal to obtain the intermediate frequency calibration signal. The number of fourth real-number digital-to-analog converters may be one or at least two.

[0229] The local oscillator signal and the signal output from the fourth real-number digital-to-analog converter are mixed using the third mixer to obtain a mixed signal that approximates a single tone signal. The mixed signal is then squared using the first squarer to obtain a single tone signal, which is used as the intermediate frequency calibration signal.

[0230] Figure 25C is a schematic diagram of the structure of the radio frequency auxiliary transmission link shown in Figure 22A. As shown in Figure 25C, the radio frequency auxiliary transmission link includes a second signal source configured to output an original signal, a third filtering unit configured to perform filtering on the original signal to obtain a filtered signal, a third power amplifier configured to perform amplification on the filtered signal to obtain an amplified signal, and a fourth mixer configured to perform mixing on the amplified signal using a local oscillator signal to obtain a desired signal.

[0231] The circuit consisting of the second signal source and the third filtering unit is used to simulate the processing function of intermediate frequency signals in the main signal transmission path. The circuit consisting of the third power amplifier and the fourth mixer is used for the processing function of radio frequency signals in the main signal transmission path. As can be seen from the signal transmission function, the radio frequency auxiliary transmission link can be used as the signal transmission link.

[0232] In some exemplary embodiments, the second signal source generates a digital signal using a direct digital frequency synthesizer to improve signal generation efficiency, and further converts the signal via a digital-to-analog converter to obtain the original signal.

[0233] Figure 25D is a schematic diagram of another structure of the radio frequency auxiliary transmission link shown in Figure 25C. As shown in Figure 25D, the radio frequency auxiliary transmission link includes at least one of a quadrature compensation unit, a second squarer, and a third adder.

[0234] The orthogonal compensation unit is connected at one end to the second signal source and at the other end to the third filtering unit, and is configured to compensate for the orthogonal imbalance of the received initial signal when the initial signal output by the second signal source is an orthogonal signal. By compensating for the orthogonal imbalance of the orthogonal signal after the second signal source outputs an orthogonal signal, further deterioration of the orthogonal imbalance in subsequent signal processing can be effectively avoided, and signal quality can be effectively ensured.

[0235] The second squarer is connected to the signal input terminal of the intermediate frequency unit and is configured to process the signal output by the fourth mixer and output it to the calibrated intermediate frequency unit. By using the second squarer, residual sideband problems present in the signal output from the fourth mixer due to orthogonal imbalance problems can be effectively eliminated, ensuring the accuracy of the signal output and supporting the calibration of the radio frequency auxiliary transmission link.

[0236] The third adder is connected at one end to the second signal source and at the other end to the third filtering unit, and is configured to compensate for the signal output by the second signal source based on the leakage signal of the local oscillator signal used in the fourth mixer. The third adder can compensate for the leakage problem of the local oscillator signal in the calibration transmission link by compensating for the signal output from the second signal source, thereby ensuring the accuracy of the signal output from the radio frequency auxiliary transmission link.

[0237] Figure 26 is a schematic diagram illustrating the application of a calibration link corresponding to the receiving main path according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. As shown in Figure 26, the receiving main path may include an LNA, mixer, TIA, LPF, HPF, Real ADC, adder, and baseband processing module (BB processor) sequentially connected to the receiving antenna. The intermediate frequency auxiliary transmit link may include a sequentially connected frequency divider and real-valued ADC. The output terminal of the real-valued ADC in the intermediate frequency auxiliary transmit link is connected to the signal input terminal of the TIA. The intermediate frequency auxiliary transmit link may include a sequentially connected TX DDFS, IQ unbalanced compensation module, adder, IQ DAC, LPF, TIA, and mixer. The output terminal of the mixer is switchably connected between the PD and the receiving antenna, or connected to the signal input terminal of the TIA.

[0238] In the structure shown in Figure 26, an intermediate frequency auxiliary transmit link is used to output an intermediate frequency calibration signal, thereby calibrating the intermediate frequency unit and performing calibration of at least the baseband processing module and Real ADC in the receiving main path. Then, a signal is output to the signal output terminal of the TIA using the radio frequency auxiliary transmit link, and the result of signal processing by the baseband processing module is used to calibrate the radio frequency auxiliary transmit link, performing calibration operations for at least TX LO leakage and IQ imbalance. Finally, the radio frequency auxiliary transmit link outputs a signal to the signal input terminal of the LNA in the receiving main path, calibrating the RX LO leakage problem and RX frequency response problem in the receiving main path. The radio frequency auxiliary transmit link may be configured to generate multiple stable monotone (tone) signals of different frequencies to perform calibration operations on the radio frequency unit in the receiving main path. The output terminal of the radio frequency auxiliary transmit link can be connected between the PD and the receiving antenna, or to the signal input terminal of the LNA, etc., to perform auxiliary calibration of the PD at the input terminal of the LNA, the total gain and frequency response of the LNA~Real ADC.

[0239] Figures 27A and 27B are schematic diagrams illustrating the application of an intermediate frequency auxiliary transmission link according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. The difference between Figure 27A and Figure 27B is the number of DACs used in Figure 27A and Figure 27B. In Figure 27A, one DAC is used, and DAC1 is used as the signal source. A mixer uses the local oscillator signal used in the receiving main path to perform down-conversion processing on the signal output from DAC1, and the residual sidebands of the mixer output signal are removed by a squarer to obtain a desired intermediate frequency calibration signal.

[0240] Figure 27B uses two DACs, and the number of bits in the signal generated by DAC1 is higher than that of the signal generated by DAC2. For example, DAC1 is a 10-bit DAC, and DAC2 is a 1-bit DAC. There is also a difference in the signal processing method of the two DACs output in Figure 27B. The signal output by DAC1 is processed by a mixer, and the signal output by DAC2 is processed by a frequency divider. For this reason, the clock frequency of DAC1 is significantly lower than the clock frequency of DAC2. The clock frequency of DAC1 matches the clock frequency of the ADC in the receiving main path, and may be, for example, 60MHz. The clock frequency of DAC2 is a higher frequency, and may be, for example, 1.2GHz.

[0241] The signal output from the frequency divider is processed by DAC2 to obtain an intermediate frequency calibration signal. This intermediate frequency calibration signal can be switchedly output to the signal input terminal of the TIA, the signal input terminal of the HPF, the signal input terminal of the VGA, or the signal input terminal of the ADC, allowing calibration of different elements or combinations of elements in the intermediate frequency unit.

[0242] Embodiments of this disclosure include a signal transmission main path configured to provide a signal transmission link and transmit electromagnetic wave signals, and a calibration link integrated into a device including the signal transmission main path for calibrating the signal transmission main path. The signal transmission main path performs calibration operations based on calibration information obtained by the calibration link, and the calibrated signal transmission main path performs electromagnetic wave signal transmission operations.

[0243] The calibration link described above may be any of the calibration links described in any embodiment of this application. The signal transmission main path and the calibration link are integrated on the same chip or on the same PCD or PCB board to support real-time detection of the signal transmission main path.

[0244] Furthermore, if there is space available in the vicinity of the main signal transmission path, the calibration link can be preferentially placed as close as possible to the main signal transmission path to reduce the impact of signal transmission losses and interference on the calibration results.

[0245] In the signal transmission link according to the embodiment of the present invention, the calibration link is integrated into an integrated circuit that includes the signal transmission main path. Therefore, the calibration link can perform calibration operations on the signal transmission main path in real time, and the calibration operations of the calibration link do not change in response to changes in the operating environment of the signal transmission main path. As a result, the signal transmission main path can obtain more accurate calibration information, and the signal processing performance of the signal transmission main path can be improved.

[0246] Furthermore, the integrated circuit according to the embodiment of the present disclosure has two adjacent and spaced-apart signal transmission main paths, and one of the calibration links described above installed between the two signal transmission main paths, the calibration link being shared by the two signal transmission main paths.

[0247] Furthermore, the integrated circuit may include any of the above-described signal transmission and reception links. Optionally, the integrated circuit may be a millimeter-wave radar chip (chip or die). In some selective embodiments, the integrated circuit may be an AiP (Antenna-In-Package), AoP (Antenna-On-Package), or AoC (Antenna-On-Chip) chip structure.

[0248] Other embodiments of the present disclosure further provide electromagnetic wave devices. The electromagnetic wave device may comprise an antenna and the above-described integrated circuit. The integrated circuit is electrically connected to the antenna and used for transmitting and receiving electromagnetic wave signals. For example, the electromagnetic wave device may comprise a carrier, the integrated circuit described in any of the above embodiments, and the antenna, etc. The integrated circuit may be mounted on the carrier. The antenna may be mounted on the carrier (i.e., in this case the antenna may be an antenna mounted on a PCB substrate, or it may be a RoP (Radiator on Package) antenna structure, i.e., a radiating structure Radiator is installed in the package, and a waveguide structure is formed by surrounding the Radiator with a sphere, and the RF signal is transmitted through the radiating structure to the waveguide structure and converted from the waveguide structure to an external antenna), or it may be integrated as an integrated device with the integrated circuit and mounted on the carrier (i.e., in this case the antenna may be an antenna installed in an AiP, AoP, or AoC structure). The aforementioned integrated circuit is connected to an antenna (i.e., in this case, the sensing chip or integrated circuit does not have an integrated antenna, for example, a conventional SoC), and is used for transmitting and receiving electromagnetic wave signals. The carrier may be a printed circuit board (PCB).

[0249] Embodiments of this disclosure provide an apparatus which may comprise an apparatus body and the electromagnetic wave device provided on the apparatus body. The electromagnetic wave device is used for target detection and / or communication and supplies reference information to the operation of the apparatus body.

[0250] Embodiments of this disclosure further provide electronic devices that may be represented in the form of general-purpose computing devices. Components of the electronic device may include, but are not limited to, at least one processing unit, at least one storage unit, a bus connecting different system elements (including the storage unit and the processing unit), a display unit, and the like. Program code is stored in the storage unit, and the program code is executed by the processing unit, thereby causing the processing unit to perform the methods according to each exemplary embodiment of this disclosure described herein. The storage unit may include a readable medium in the form of a volatile storage unit such as a random access storage unit (RAM) and / or a high-speed cache storage unit, and may further include a read-only storage unit (ROM).

[0251] The storage unit may further include a program / utility having at least one set (at least one) of program modules. Such program modules may include, but are not limited to, an operating system, one or more application programs, other program modules, and program data. Each or any combination of these examples may include the implementation of a network environment.

[0252] A bus represents one or more of several types of bus architectures, including memory cell buses or memory cell controllers, peripheral buses, graphics acceleration ports, processing units, or local area buses using any of the bus architectures.

[0253] The electronic device may communicate with one or more external devices (e.g., keyboard, pointing device, Bluetooth (registered trademark) device, etc.), and may also communicate with one or more devices that enable a user to interact with the electronic device, and / or may communicate with any device (e.g., router, modem, etc.) that enables the electronic device to communicate with one or more other computing devices. Such communication can be performed via an input / output (I / O) interface. Also, the electronic device may communicate with one or more networks (e.g., local area network (LAN), wide area network (WAN), and / or public network such as the Internet) via a network adapter. The network adapter can communicate with other modules of the electronic device via a bus. Although not shown, as should be understood, other hardware and / or software modules may be used in conjunction with the electronic device, including but not limited to microcode, device drivers, redundant processing units, external disk drive arrays, RAID systems, tape drives, and data backup storage systems.

[0254] For example, the electronic device in an embodiment of the present disclosure may further include a device body and the electromagnetic wave device described in any of the above embodiments provided in the device body. The electromagnetic wave device is used to realize functions such as target detection and / or wireless communication.

[0255] Specifically, in addition to the above embodiments, in a selective embodiment of the present disclosure, the electromagnetic wave device may be installed outside the device body or may be installed inside the device body. In another selective embodiment of the present disclosure, part of the electromagnetic wave device may be installed inside the device body and part may be installed outside the device body. The embodiments of the present disclosure do not limit this, and specifically, it can be determined according to the situation.

[0256] In one selective embodiment, the device body may be components and products applied in fields such as smart cities, smart houses, transportation, smart homes, home appliances, security monitoring, industrial automation, cabin inspection (e.g., smart cabins), medical equipment, and hygiene and health. For example, the device body may be smart transportation equipment (e.g., automobiles, bicycles, motorcycles, ships, subways, trains, etc.), security equipment (e.g., cameras), liquid level / flow velocity detection equipment, smart wearable equipment (e.g., bracelets, glasses, etc.), smart home equipment (e.g., robotic vacuums, door locks, televisions, air conditioners, smart lights, etc.), various communication equipment (e.g., mobile phones, tablet PCs, etc.), and gates, smart traffic indicator lights, smart display boards, traffic cameras, and various industrialized robotic arms (or robots), as well as various devices for detecting biological characteristic parameters and various equipment equipped with such devices, such as biological characteristic detection in automobile cabins, indoor personnel monitoring, smart medical equipment, and consumer electronics devices.

[0257] Embodiments of the present disclosure further provide a non-instantaneous computer-readable storage medium in which computer-readable instructions are stored, and when an instruction is executed by a processor, the processor is instructed to perform the above-described signal transmission method.

[0258] As will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art from the above description of embodiments, the exemplary embodiments described herein may be implemented by software or by a combination of software and necessary hardware. The technical solutions according to the embodiments of the disclosure may be implemented in the form of a software product, which may be stored on a non-volatile storage medium (such as a CD-ROM, USB disk, removable hard disk, etc.) or on a network, and which includes several instructions for causing a computing device (such as a personal computer, server, or network device, etc.) to perform the method according to the embodiments of the disclosure.

[0259] A software product may employ any combination of one or more readable media. The readable media may be a readable signal medium or a readable storage medium. The readable storage medium may be, but not limited to, an electrical, magnetic, optical, electromagnetic, infrared, or semiconductor system, apparatus, or device, or any combination thereof. More specific examples (a non-complete list) of readable storage media include electrical connections with one or more wires, portable disks, hard disks, random access memory (RAM), read-only memory (ROM), erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM or flash memory), optical fibers, portable compact disk read-only memory (CD-ROM), optical storage devices, magnetic storage devices, or any suitable combination thereof.

[0260] A computer-readable storage medium may be contained within the baseband or as part of a propagated data signal, bearing readable program code. Such propagated data signals may take various forms, including but not limited to electromagnetic signals, optical signals, or any suitable combination thereof. The readable storage medium may be any other readable medium. The readable medium can transmit, propagate, or transmit a program for use by or in combination with an instruction execution system, apparatus, or device. The program code contained in the readable storage medium can be transmitted using any suitable medium, including but not limited to wireless, wired, optical cable, RF, etc., or any suitable combination thereof.

[0261] The program code for performing the operations disclosed herein may be written in any combination of one or more programming languages, including object-oriented programming languages ​​such as Java® and C++. It may also include traditional procedural programming languages ​​such as C or similar languages. The program code may run entirely on the user's computing device, partially on the user's computing device, run as a standalone software package, run partially on the user's computing device and partially on a remote computing device, or run entirely on a remote computing device or server. Where a remote computing device is involved, it may be connected to the user's computing device via any type of network, including a local area network (LAN) or wide area network (WAN), or it may be connected to an external computing device (for example, via the Internet using an Internet service provider).

[0262] The computer-readable medium described above bears one or more programs, and when the one or more programs are executed by a single device, the computer-readable medium is made to perform the above functions.

[0263] As those skilled in the art will understand, each of the above modules may be distributed within the apparatus as described in the embodiment, and corresponding modifications may be made within one or more apparatuses different from those in this embodiment. The modules of the above embodiment may be integrated into a single module, or they may be further divided into multiple submodules.

[0264] According to embodiments of the present disclosure, the above method can be performed if a computer program is provided, and the computer program or instructions are included, and the computer program or instructions are executed by a processor. In one selective embodiment, the integrated circuit may be a millimeter-wave radar chip. The type of digital function module in the integrated circuit can be determined according to the actual demand. For example, in a millimeter-wave radar chip, the receiving end baseband digital module is used for distance-dimensional Doppler conversion, velocity-dimensional Doppler conversion, constant-imaginary alarm detection, wave arrival direction detection, point cloud processing, etc., and is used to acquire information such as the distance to a target, horizontal angle, elevation angle, velocity, height, micro-Doppler motion characteristics, shape, dimensions, surface roughness, dielectric properties, etc.

[0265] Furthermore, by transmitting and receiving wireless signals, the wireless device can realize functions such as target detection and / or communication, provide detected target information and / or communication information to the main unit, and further assist and control the operation of the main unit.

[0266] For example, when the above-mentioned device is applied to an advanced driver-assistance system (ADAS), the on-board sensor, a wireless device (e.g., millimeter-wave radar), can assist the ADAS system to realize application scenarios such as adaptive cruise control, automatic emergency braking (AEB), blind spot detection warning (BSD), lane change assist (LCA), rear cross-traffic alert (RCTA), parking assist, rear vehicle warning, collision avoidance, and pedestrian detection.

[0267] Any combination of the technical features in the above embodiments is possible, and for the sake of brevity, not all possible combinations of the technical features in the above embodiments are described. However, as long as these combinations of technical features are inconsistent, they should all be considered to fall within the scope of this specification.

[0268] The above embodiments represent preferred embodiments and applicable technical principles of the present disclosure. While the description is relatively specific and detailed, it should not be understood as limiting the scope of the patent. Various modifications, readjustments, and substitutions are possible without departing from the scope of protection of the present disclosure and will be obvious to those skilled in the art. Therefore, although the above embodiments illustrate the present disclosure in relatively detail, the disclosure is not limited to these embodiments and may include other equivalent embodiments as long as they do not depart from the concept of the present disclosure, and the scope of patent protection of the present disclosure will be determined by the claims.

Claims

1. A calibration link for a signal transmission main path, wherein the signal transmission main path is used to transmit electromagnetic wave signals, the calibration link is integrated into an integrated circuit including the signal transmission main path, and the calibration link is connected at least between the signal transmission main path and an antenna corresponding to the signal transmission main path. The calibration link is configured to calibrate the signal transmission main path and obtain calibration information. The signal transmission main path is configured to perform calibration operations based on calibration information obtained by the calibration link, and the calibration link of the signal transmission main path transmits electromagnetic wave signals after calibration.

2. The calibration link according to claim 1, characterized in that, before the integrated circuit is shipped, the calibration link calibrates the signal transmission main path on at least one side of the gap through which the integrated circuit transmits and receives signals, and compensates for the transmitted information in real time based on calibration information obtained by a previous calibration of the calibration link.

3. The calibration link according to claim 1, characterized in that the integrated circuit is provided with at least two signal transmission main paths, and one of the calibration links is configured to calibrate at least two of the signal transmission main paths.

4. The calibration link according to claim 1, characterized in that the signal transmitted by the calibration link is a monophonic signal.

5. The aforementioned electromagnetic wave signal is a radar signal. The signal transmission main path includes an echo signal receiving main path and / or a radio frequency signal transmission main path; the calibration link includes an auxiliary transmission link corresponding to the receiving main path and / or an auxiliary receiving link corresponding to the transmitting main path; and the antenna includes a receiving antenna corresponding to the receiving main path and / or a transmitting antenna corresponding to the transmitting main path. The auxiliary receiving link is connected between the main transmission path and the corresponding transmitting antenna and is configured to calibrate the radio frequency signal transmitted by the main transmission path. The calibration link according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein the receiving main path includes a radio frequency unit and an intermediate frequency unit sequentially connected to a receiving antenna, and correspondingly the auxiliary transmission link includes at least one of an intermediate frequency auxiliary transmission link corresponding to the intermediate frequency unit and a radio frequency auxiliary transmission link corresponding to the radio frequency unit, the intermediate frequency auxiliary transmission link is connected to the intermediate frequency signal output terminal of the receiving main path and configured to calibrate the intermediate frequency signal obtained by downconverting the echo signal received by the receiving main path, and the radio frequency auxiliary transmission link is connected between the receiving main path and the corresponding receiving antenna and configured to calibrate the echo signal received by the receiving main path.

6. The aforementioned auxiliary receiving link is A first mixer is configured to perform mixing processing on the received signal using the local oscillator signal used for receiving operations, A first power amplifier configured to perform amplification processing on the signal output by the first mixer, A first filtering unit configured to perform filtering on a received signal to obtain a filtered signal, The calibration link according to claim 5, comprising a first real-number digital-to-analog converter configured to convert a digital filtering signal into an analog filtering signal.

7. The aforementioned auxiliary receiving link further, The calibration link according to claim 6, further comprising a first adder connected to the first real-number digital-to-analog converter and configured to compensate for the signal output by the first real-number digital-to-analog converter based on a leakage signal of a local oscillator signal used in the first mixer.

8. The calibration link further includes a calibration transmission link corresponding to the auxiliary receiving link, The calibration link according to any one of claims 5 to 7, wherein the calibration transmission link is configured to perform a calibration operation on the auxiliary receiving link, and accordingly, the auxiliary transmission link performs a calibration operation based on the calibration information obtained by the calibration receiving link, and the calibration-processed auxiliary receiving link performs a calibration operation on the transmission main path.

9. The aforementioned proof submission link is, A first signal generator configured to output a digital original signal, A second real-number digital-to-analog converter configured to convert the original digital signal into an original analog signal, A second filtering unit is configured to perform filtering on the original signal to obtain a filtered signal, A second power amplifier configured to perform amplification processing on a filtered signal to obtain an amplified signal, The calibration link according to claim 8, further comprising a second mixer configured to perform mixing on the amplified signal using a local oscillator signal used for transmission operations.

10. The calibration transmission link further includes at least one of a second adder and a bandpass filter. The second adder is connected between the first signal generator and the second real-digital-to-analog converter and is configured to compensate for the signal output by the first signal generator based on the leakage signal of the local oscillator signal used in the second mixer. The calibration link according to claim 9, characterized in that the bandpass filter is connected to the second mixer, performs filtering on the signal output by the second mixer, and transmits the filtered signal to the calibration unit.

11. The aforementioned intermediate frequency auxiliary transmission link includes a first signal source and a third real-number digital-to-analog converter, wherein the first signal source is configured to output a digital intermediate frequency calibration signal, and the third real-number digital-to-analog converter is configured to convert the digital intermediate frequency calibration signal into an analog intermediate frequency calibration signal. Or, The calibration link according to claim 5, wherein the intermediate frequency auxiliary transmission link includes a fourth real-number digital-to-analog converter, a third mixer, and a first squarer, the fourth real-number digital-to-analog converter is configured to convert a preset digital signal into an analog signal, the third mixer is configured to perform mixing processing on the signal output by the fourth real-number digital-to-analog converter and the local oscillator signal to obtain a mixed signal, and the first squarer is configured to perform squaring processing on the mixed signal to obtain the intermediate frequency calibration signal.

12. The calibration link according to claim 11, wherein the first signal source includes a second signal generator and a digital phase shift module, the second signal generator is configured to generate an initial signal, and the digital phase shift module is configured to perform frequency shift and / or phase shift processing on the initial signal using a digital quadrature modulation scheme.

13. The aforementioned radio frequency auxiliary transmission link is further connected to the input terminal of the intermediate frequency unit, The calibration link according to claim 5, characterized in that, after the calibration operation by the intermediate frequency unit is completed, the radio frequency auxiliary transmission link is calibrated using the calibrated intermediate frequency unit, and the radio frequency unit is calibrated using the calibrated radio frequency auxiliary transmission link.

14. The aforementioned radio frequency auxiliary transmission link is A second signal source configured to output the original signal, A third filtering unit is configured to perform filtering on the original signal to obtain a filtered signal, A third power amplifier configured to perform amplification processing on a filtered signal to obtain an amplified signal, The calibration link according to claim 5 or 13, further comprising a fourth mixer configured to perform mixing processing on the amplified signal using a local oscillator signal to obtain a desired signal.

15. The aforementioned radio frequency auxiliary transmission link includes at least one of a quadrature compensation unit, a second squarer, and a third adder. The orthogonal compensation unit is configured such that one end is connected to the second signal source and the other end is connected to the third filtering unit, and when the initial signal output by the second signal source is an orthogonal signal, it compensates for the orthogonal imbalance of the received initial signal. The second squarer is connected to the signal input terminal of the intermediate frequency unit and is configured to process the signal output by the fourth mixer and output it to the calibrated intermediate frequency unit. The calibration link according to claim 14, characterized in that the third adder is connected at one end to the second signal source and at the other end to the third filtering unit, and is configured to compensate for the signal output by the second signal source based on the leakage signal of the local oscillator signal used in the fourth mixer.

16. A signal transmission main path configured to transmit electromagnetic wave signals, To calibrate the signal transmission main path, a calibration link integrated into the device including the signal transmission main path is included, The signal transmission main path performs calibration operations based on calibration information obtained by the calibration link, and the signal transmission main path after calibration performs electromagnetic wave signal transmission operations.

17. The signal transmission link according to claim 16, characterized in that the calibration link is the calibration link described in any one of claims 1 to 15.

18. The signal transmission link according to claim 16 or 17, characterized in that the signal transmission main path and the calibration link are integrated within the same chip or on the same PCD substrate or PCB substrate.

19. An integrated circuit comprising at least two signal transmission main paths and a calibration link according to any one of claims 1 to 15, which is installed between two adjacent transmission main paths, and the calibration link is shared by the two signal transmission main paths.

20. Career and, The integrated circuit according to claim 19, which is installed on the carrier, The antenna, which is installed on the carrier or integrated as a device with the integrated circuit and installed on the carrier, includes a transmitting antenna and a receiving antenna, An electromagnetic wave device in which the integrated circuit is connected to the antenna and used for transmitting and / or receiving electromagnetic wave signals.

21. The main body of the device, The apparatus comprises an electromagnetic wave device according to claim 20 provided on the main body of the apparatus, The electromagnetic wave device is used for target detection and / or wireless communication to provide reference information for the operation of the main body of the device, and is a user terminal device.

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