Radar IC Segmentation for Angular Resolution and Latency
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current radar systems face challenges in efficiently processing and combining range-Doppler maps from multiple antennas, leading to increased data exchange latency and limited angular resolution, especially in automotive radar systems where multiple receive channels are required for accurate target detection and tracking.
Innovation Solution
A distributed signal processing approach is implemented using multiple radar-integrated circuits (ICs) that independently compute 2D range-Doppler maps and exchange only selected and confirmable range-Doppler cells, reducing data exchange and latency by focusing on basic information rather than raw data, and allowing for further processing to determine spatial directions of targets.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If multiple radar-ICs process receive signals from antenna arrays and exchange data for target detection, then target detection accuracy and angular resolution are improved, but data exchange latency and processing time increase
Solution Approach 1:
The antenna array is divided into multiple sub-arrays, each processed by a separate radar-IC. Each radar-IC independently determines range-Doppler maps from its sub-array, enabling parallel processing and reducing the time required to process the entire antenna array while maintaining angular resolution through subsequent combination of results
Solution Approach 2:
Each radar-IC performs preliminary processing to determine range-Doppler maps and identifies confirmable range-Doppler cells before exchanging data with other radar-ICs. This preliminary action reduces the amount of data that needs to be exchanged and processed centrally, thereby reducing data exchange latency while maintaining detection accuracy
2Productivity
If multiple radar-ICs independently determine range-Doppler maps and exchange confirmable cells, then processing efficiency is improved, but system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The signal processing function is segmented across multiple radar-ICs, with each IC handling a specific sub-array. This segmentation enables parallel processing of receive signals, improving overall processing efficiency while distributing the computational load across multiple independent units rather than requiring a single complex processor
Solution Approach 2:
A coordination mechanism serves as an intermediary between multiple radar-ICs, managing the exchange of confirmable range-Doppler cells and the logical combination of results. This intermediary layer simplifies the overall system architecture by providing standardized interfaces and combination logic, preventing exponential complexity growth despite having multiple independent processing units
3Reliability
If confirmable range-Doppler cells are communicated between radar-ICs for logical combination, then target detection reliability is improved, but communication data volume increases
Solution Approach 1:
Each radar-IC extracts and communicates only the confirmable range-Doppler cells that meet predetermined confirmation criteria, rather than exchanging all processed data. This extraction of essential information maintains target detection reliability by sharing only relevant detection candidates while significantly reducing the volume of communication data between radar-ICs
Data Source
AI summary
The present disclosure relates to a concept for detecting radar targets. A plurality of first receive signals is received from first antennas of an antenna array. A first combined range-Doppler map is determined by combining range-Doppler maps of each of the first antennas. First confirmable range-Doppler cells of the first combined range-Doppler map are determined which match a predetermined confirmation criterion. A plurality of second receive signals is received from second antennas of the antenna array. A second combined range-Doppler map is determined by combining range-Doppler maps of each of the second antennas. Second confirmable range-Doppler cells of the second combined range-Doppler map are determined which match the predetermined confirmation criterion. The first and second confirmable range-Doppler cells are combined to obtain a set of confirmable range-Doppler cells. Values of the first and the second combined range-Doppler maps corresponding to the set of confirmable range-Doppler cells are summed to obtain summed values of the combined confirmable range-Doppler cells. Summed values of the total confirmable range-Doppler cells exceeding a predefined selection threshold are selected for target detection.