Radar Apparatus Antenna Sharing for Circuit Size Reduction
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional MIMO radar systems face challenges in reducing circuit size while maintaining effective beam control and suppressing side-lobe or grating-lobe components, leading to increased complexity and size due to the need for numerous phase shifters and antennas.
Innovation Solution
The radar apparatus employs a configuration where adjacent transmitting subarrays share transmitting antennas and phase shifters, and the receiving antennas are arranged with spacings that accommodate the transmitting subarray configuration, allowing for reduced hardware requirements and improved beam control by forming a virtual receiving array with suppressed side-lobe and grating-lobe components.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If a conventional MIMO radar configuration with multiple transmitting subarrays is used to achieve wide-angle detection and high resolution, then the detection capability and angular resolution are improved, but the circuit size and device complexity increase due to the need for numerous phase shifters and antennas
Solution Approach 1:
Adjacent transmitting subarrays share common transmitting antennas and phase shifters at their boundaries. Specifically, the last antenna and phase shifter of one subarray are shared with the first antenna and phase shifter of the adjacent subarray, reducing the total number of components while maintaining the virtual array aperture for high angular resolution
Solution Approach 2:
The shared antennas and phase shifters serve multiple functions: they are used by both adjacent transmitting subarrays for beamforming operations, eliminating the need for dedicated components for each subarray and thereby reducing circuit size while preserving detection capabilities
2Adaptability or versatility
If the number of transmitting subarrays is increased to widen the detection angle range, then the wide-angle detection capability is improved, but the number of phase shifters and antennas must be increased, leading to increased circuit size
Solution Approach 1:
By merging adjacent transmitting subarrays through shared antennas and phase shifters, the radar can increase the number of virtual transmitting elements for wider detection coverage without proportionally increasing the physical circuit size, as shared components serve multiple subarrays simultaneously
Data Source
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AI summary
A radar apparatus includes: a radar transmitter that transmits a plurality of radar signals while switching among a plurality of transmitting subarrays; and a radar receiver that receives reflected-wave signals produced by the plurality of radar signals being reflected by a target, the plurality of radar signals being transmitted from the respective transmitting subarrays. In the radar apparatus, each of the plurality of transmitting subarrays includes a plurality of transmitting antennas, and adjacent ones of the plurality of transmitting subarrays share at least one of the plurality of transmitting antennas with each other.