Radar Receiver Sharing for Precise Antenna Angle Detection
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing radar devices face challenges in size reduction, cost, and power consumption due to the use of multiple receiver antennas, and time-division operation leads to angle detection errors from signal lag.
Innovation Solution
A radar device configuration with shared receiver circuits for multiple antennas, allowing simultaneous signal processing without individual circuits for each antenna, reducing circuit scale and power consumption while minimizing angle detection errors.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If the same number of receivers as antennas are placed to correspond to the respective receiver antennas, then signal processing capability is improved, but circuit scale becomes great, making it difficult to reduce the size of the radar device and increasing power consumption
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges multiple receiver circuits into a single receiver circuit by using an antenna switch to sequentially connect multiple receiver antennas to the same receiver. This combining approach maintains the ability to process signals from multiple antennas while significantly reducing the total number of receiver circuits, thereby reducing circuit scale and power consumption without sacrificing signal processing capability
Solution Approach 2:
The single receiver circuit is designed to serve multiple functions by sequentially receiving signals from different receiver antennas through the antenna switch. This multi-functional design allows one receiver circuit to replace what would traditionally require multiple dedicated receiver circuits, achieving both size reduction and maintained processing capability
2Device complexity
If time-division operation is used to share a receiver among multiple antennas, then circuit scale is reduced, but a time lag is generated among the signals received, causing error in detection of arrival angle
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies preliminary action by performing time lag compensation calculations before final arrival angle detection. The system calculates the time lag that occurs during antenna switching and uses this information to correct the phase differences between signals from different antennas, ensuring accurate arrival angle detection despite the time-division operation
Solution Approach 2:
The system implements feedback by using the known antenna switching timing information to compensate for time lag effects. The phase difference calculations incorporate correction based on the switching timing, creating a feedback mechanism that eliminates the precision errors that would otherwise result from time-division operation
3Measurement precision
If switching between receiver antennas is sped up to reduce time difference between reception signals, then angle detection precision is improved, but high-speed switching processing and high-speed data processing are required, causing problems of increase in circuit scale and increase in power consumption
Solution Approach 1:
The patent changes the approach from requiring high switching speeds to using mathematical compensation. By introducing time lag compensation calculations, the system achieves accurate angle detection without needing to reduce the switching period, thereby avoiding the need for high-speed processing hardware and associated power consumption increases
Data Source
AI summary
A radar device includes: a first receiver antenna outputting a first reception signal; a second receiver antenna outputting a second reception signal; a third receiver antenna outputting a third reception signal; a first receiver circuit processing the first reception signal; and a second receiver circuit selecting one of the second reception signal and the third reception signal and processing the selected signal. The first receiver antenna is placed apart from the second receiver antenna in a first direction and apart from the third receiver antenna in a second direction.