Radar Interference Suppression Using Adaptive Spectrogram Scaling
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Solution Overview
Problem
Radar systems face interference from other sources, which degrades detection performance, particularly in congested spectrum environments, leading to inaccurate target characterization and increased false positives.
Innovation Solution
Implementing interference suppression techniques that involve converting radar signal reflections into a time-frequency domain, determining interference thresholds, identifying interfered cells, applying adaptive scaling factors to reduce interference magnitudes, and converting back to the time domain using inverse STFT, thereby preserving target signal data.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Object-affected harmful factors
If conventional zeroing methods are used to suppress interference, then interference levels are reduced, but ghost artifacts increase and detection accuracy deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent converts the harmful interference signal into a beneficial tool for detection. By using the interference signal itself to generate a virtual antenna array, the system transforms the harmful interference into a useful resource for improving detection accuracy and suppressing ghost artifacts, rather than simply eliminating it through conventional zeroing methods
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces an intermediary processing step that analyzes the interference signal in the frequency domain and uses it to create virtual antenna elements. This intermediary approach allows the system to distinguish between actual targets and ghost artifacts caused by interference, thereby improving detection accuracy while maintaining interference suppression
2Productivity
If radar systems operate in congested spectrum environments, then more radar signals can be transmitted, but interference from other radars increases and detection performance deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent enables radar systems to operate effectively in congested spectrum environments by converting interference from other radars into a useful resource. The interference signals are processed to create virtual antenna arrays, allowing the system to maintain reliable detection performance even when multiple radars are operating simultaneously in the same environment
Solution Approach 2:
The patent changes the processing parameters by transforming the interference signal characteristics into useful spatial information. By analyzing the frequency and temporal parameters of interference signals and converting them into virtual antenna element parameters, the system can distinguish between actual targets and interference, maintaining detection reliability in congested environments
Data Source
AI summary
Radar systems and interference suppression methods are described, including a radar system that includes communication circuitry configured to transmit radar signals and to receive reflections of the transmitted radar signals reflected by an object in an environment of the radar system and processing circuitry. The processing circuitry is configured to generate a spectrogram by converting samples of the reflections into a time-frequency domain, determine a plurality of interference thresholds, including a respective interference threshold for each frequency bin of the spectrogram, identify interfered cells of the spectrogram based on the plurality of interference thresholds, determine scaling factors for the interfered cells based on at least the plurality of interference thresholds and magnitudes of the interfered cells, generate an interference-suppressed spectrogram by applying the scaling factors to the interfered cells to reduce the magnitudes of the interfered cells, and generate interference-suppressed samples based on the interference-suppressed spectrogram.