FMCW Lidar Subband Processing for Power Reduction
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Solution Overview
Problem
FMCW LIDAR systems consume high power due to full-band processing, even when there are no targets, leading to inefficient power management and increased chip area requirements.
Innovation Solution
Implementing selective subband detection and processing in both the time and frequency domains to reduce power consumption by separating and processing only relevant frequency subbands based on specific criteria, such as energy and SNR peaks, thereby reducing unnecessary processing.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If full-band processing is used to cover all possible target distances, then measurement precision is improved, but power consumption increases
Solution Approach 1:
The frequency band is divided into multiple subbands, and only the subbands containing target signals are processed. This segmentation allows the system to maintain measurement precision for detected targets while avoiding power consumption on empty frequency regions.
Solution Approach 2:
Instead of processing the entire frequency band, the system processes only a subset of subbands that are likely to contain target signals based on selection criteria. This partial action reduces power consumption while maintaining sufficient measurement precision for actual targets.
2Reliability
If full-band processing is used to ensure complete target detection, then reliability is improved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The signal processing is segmented into subband-level operations with selection criteria that identify which subbands contain targets. This reduces the overall processing complexity while maintaining detection reliability by focusing computational resources on relevant subbands.
Solution Approach 2:
Subband selection criteria are applied preliminarily to identify which subbands contain target signals before performing full processing. This preliminary action filters out empty subbands, reducing subsequent processing complexity while ensuring that all subbands containing targets are processed for reliable detection.
3Measurement precision
If full-band processing is used to process all frequency components, then measurement precision is improved, but chip area increases
Solution Approach 1:
The chip area is efficiently utilized by implementing segmentation in the signal processing architecture. Only the processing circuits for selected subbands are activated and instantiated, reducing the required chip area while maintaining range measurement accuracy for detected targets.
4Loss of energy
If selective subband processing is used to reduce power consumption, then energy efficiency is improved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The processing architecture is segmented into independent subband processing units with selection logic. This segmentation enables power-efficient operation by activating only necessary units while the modular structure actually reduces overall architectural complexity compared to full-band processing.
Solution Approach 2:
The system dynamically selects which subbands to process based on input signal characteristics and selection criteria. This dynamic adaptation improves energy efficiency without requiring a permanently complex architecture, as the selection logic adapts to the actual sensing scenario.
Data Source
AI summary
A frequency modulated continuous wave (FMCW) light detection and ranging (LIDAR) system includes a memory and a processor, operatively coupled to the memory, to generate a set of frequency subbands in a time domain based on an electrical signal from one or more optical detectors and filter the set of frequency subbands in the time domain based on one or more characteristics of each of the set of frequency subbands to obtain a subset of the set of frequency subbands based on at least two separate signal thresholds. The processor is further to convert the subset of the plurality of frequency subbands in the time domain to one or more subband signals in a frequency domain and detect signal peaks in the one or more subband signals in the frequency domain corresponding to target ranges in a field of view of the FMCW LIDAR system.