Multistatic method and device for radar measuring a close distance

• US 20060197701A1
• Filed: 10/31/2003
• Published: 09/07/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 11/08/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Continental Automotive GmbH (Continental AG)
• Original Assignee: Siemens AG
• Inventors: Heide, Patric, Vossiek, Martin
• Granted Patent: US 7,589,665 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 342/118
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 13/003 Bistatic radar systems; Multistatic radar systems
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 13/931 of land vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 2013/9314 Parking operations
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 2013/93271 in the front of the vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 7/032 Constructional details for solid-state radar subsystems
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 7/4004 of parts of a radar system

Abstract

A multistatic detection device for measuring a distance to an object includes a transmitter and a receiver, each having a high-frequency oscillator and a pulse generator. The pulse generators can be supplied with synchronisation signals emitted by signals generators, the synchronisation signals being transmitted by a data bus common to the transmitter and the receiver. The relation of the deterministic phases of high-frequency signals can be produced by the high-frequency oscillator. The method includes feeding two synchronisation signals to the transmitter and the receiver by the common data bus, the transmitter signal is transmitted towards an object, the signal passing through the receiver and contained in the data bus being mixed with a reception signal reflected by the object, thereby producing a measuring signal thereby making it possible to compare the phases of clock signals.

Claims

1. Multistatic sensor arrangement for measuring distance from an object, having a transmit unit (Tn) and a receive unit (Rm) unit, each of which has a high-frequency oscillator (HFO-Tn, HFO-Rm) and a pulse generator (PG-Tn, PG-Rm),

characterized in that

the pulse generators (PG-Tn, PG-Rm) can be supplied with clock signals (TS, TR) from signal generators, it being possible to transmit the clock signals (TS, TR) via a common data bus (B) to the transmit unit (Tn) and the receive unit (Rm), as a result of which a deterministic phase relationship can be generated for the high-frequency signals from the high-frequency oscillators (HFO-Tn, HFO-Rm).

2. Sensor arrangement according to claim 1, characterized in that the transmit and receive units each have antennae (E^Rm, E^Tn).

3. Sensor arrangement according to claim 1, characterized in that the receive unit has a mixer MIX.

4. Sensor arrangement according to claim 1, characterized in that the clock sources are arranged at different positions in the data bus.

5. Sensor arrangement according to claim 4, characterized in that the clock sources are arranged at the ends of the data bus.

6. Sensor arrangement according to claim 1, characterized in that the transmit and receive units are constructed as LTCC-HF modules.

7. Sensor arrangement according to claim 1, characterized in that

a low-noise amplifier and/or

a bandpass filter and/or

a high-frequency filter and/or

a sampling hold element

is/are connected to the other components in the receive unit.

8. Method, in particular for operating the sensor arrangement according to claim 1, in which a clock signal from a clock source (TS, RS) is supplied via a common data bus B to a transmit and/or receive unit (Tn, Rm) and the signal is emitted from a transmit unit to an object (O) and the reflected signal REF is mixed with a clock signal by a receive unit, in order to generate a measurement signal that can be evaluated therefrom, calibration of the clock signals being carried out on the signal bus based on determination of the zero point of the clock signals, comparing the phases of two clock signals via the data bus.

9. Method according to claim 8, in which a phase comparison is carried out based on a sample at one point of the data bus B to determine the zero point.

10. Method according to claim 8, in which the zero point is achieved by a phase comparison between two clock signals, which are supplied at two ends of the data bus B.

11. Method according to claim 8, in which calibration of the clock signals is achieved in that a clock signal is transmitted over different lengths in the data bus and a correction measure is provided based on a comparison with the original clock signal.

12. Method according to claim 8, in which a phase comparison takes place by means of a FLIP-FLOP.

13. Method according to claim 8, in which a transmit unit is activated by means of the control unit via a multiplexer circuit.

14. Method according to claim 8, in which all receive units are activated so that the receive signals reflected by an object are received in parallel.

15. Method according to claim 9, in which the zero point is achieved by a phase comparison between two clock signals, which are supplied at two ends of the data bus B.

16. Sensor arrangement according to claim 2, characterized in that the receive unit has a mixer MIX.