Abstract:
A temperature compensation circuit (26) is used to provide a reference signal in a feed forward gain control loop (28). With such an arrangement, gain control is provided wherein variations of an output signal of the amplifier circuit (10) due to changing characteristics of amplifier elements (12,18) of the amplifier circuit (10) caused by ambient temperature variation or a varying input signal level are minimized. Part of the amplified (12) input signal is supplied by a coupler (14) to a detector (20) followed by a low pass filter (22) that supplies one input of a differential amplifier (24) that receives the reference signal and supplies a control signal to a controllable attenuator (16).
Abstract:
A SAW stabilized oscillator (10) includes a phase locking circuit (38,16,20,22,36) which is phase locked to a lower frequency reference signal having an odd order difference with respect to the fundamental frequency of the SAW oscillator (14). A mixer (54) is disposed in the phase locking circuitry and is used as a sub-harmonic phase detector by mixing the fundamental (54a) with an odd harmonic (54b) of the reference signal (10a). The mixer output (54c) is filtered (70) and amplified (72,74) before being supplied to the control voltage input terminal (36′) of a voltage controlled variable phase shifter (36) in the SAW oscillator (14) loop (13).
Abstract:
A radar detection process includes computing a derivative of an FFT output signal to detect an object within a specified detection zone. In one embodiment, a zero crossing in the second derivative of the FIT output signal indicates the presence of an object. The range of the object is determined as a function of the frequency at which the zero crossing occurs. Also described is a detection table containing indicators of the presence or absence of an object within a respective radar beam and processing cycle. At least two such indicators are combined in order to detect the presence of an object within the detection zone and with changing range gates in each of the antenna beams the coverage of the detection zone can be varied.
Abstract:
A radar detection process includes computing a derivative of an FFT output signal to detect an object within a specified detection zone. In one embodiment, a zero crossing in the second derivative of the FFT output signal indicates the presence of an object. The range of the object is determined as a function of the frequency at which the zero crossing occurs. Also described is a detection table containing indicators of the presence or absence of an object within a respective radar beam and processing cycle. At least two such indicators are combined in order to detect the presence of an object within the detection zone and with changing range gates in each of the antenna beams the coverage of the detection zone can be varied.
Abstract:
A radar detection process includes computing a derivative of an FFT output signal to detect an object within a specified detection zone. In one embodiment, a zero crossing in the second derivative of the FFT output signal indicates the presence of an object. The range of the object is determined as a function of the frequency at which the zero crossing occurs. Also described is a detection table containing indicators of the presence or absence of an object within a respective radar beam and processing cycle. At least two such indicators are combined in order to detect the presence of an object within the detection zone and with changing range gates in each of the antenna beams the coverage of the detection zone can be varied.
Abstract:
A radar transmitter includes a digital ramp generator circuit for generating a VCO control signal. The ramp generator includes a digital signal processor and a digital-to-analog converter. In one embodiment, the VCO output signal is up-converted to provide the transmit signal and in another embodiment, the VCO operates over the transmit frequency. Also described is a VCO comprising a DR and a phase shifter. A temperature compensation feature includes detecting the transmit frequency and comparing the DSP output generating the detected frequency to a DSP output stored in association with the detected frequency. Also described is a technique for compensating for non-linear VCO operation in which the DSP output words are adjusted to provide a waveform complementary in shape to the non-linear VCO characteristic. Susceptibility of the radar to interference is reduced by randomly varying at least one parameter of the ramp signal, such as offset interval or voltage range, in at least one ramp signal cycle.
Abstract:
A forward looking sensor (FLS) has a transmit antenna (52) and a receive antenna (56). The receive antenna (56) is coupled through a low noise amplifier (122) and a single sideband generator (126) to a down-converting mixer (146) which supplies an intermediate frequency signal to a further down-converting mixer (158). The further down-converted signal is supplied to an analog-to-digital converter stage (166) of a digital signal processor (60). The transmit antenna (52) receives a signal for transmission from a voltage controlled oscillator (VCO) (70) in a transmitter circuit (50). The single sideband generator (126) comprises a power divider having an input port coupled to the output port of the low noise amplifier (122), and first and second output ports supplying respectively the input ports of first and second amplifiers (132, 134). The amplifiers (132, 134) have respective control ports to which a synthesized fixed frequency is supplied in quadrature to modulate the received signal. The outputs of the amplifiers (132, 134) are coupled to respective input ports of a quadrature coupler (142) having a first output port at which a filtered, single-sideband signal is provided, and a second, terminated output port.
Abstract:
An automotive forward looking sensor has a transmit antenna (52) that generates a multiple beam pattern (68a - 68m), and a receive antenna (56) that receives in a multiple beam pattern (66a - 66m). The outermost beams (66a,66m; 68a,68m) of the patterns are used as alignment beams and are aimed at approximately 20° in opposite directions from the nominal centre line of the forward looking direction, and are angled down at approximately 45° towards a road surface. With the beams properly aligned, substantially identical Doppler returns are detected. Difference between Doppler returns indicates misalignment.