Micro movement pulsed radar system and method of phase noise compensation

• US 20070171119A1
• Filed: 01/24/2006
• Published: 07/26/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 01/24/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Raytheon Company (Rtx Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Raytheon Company (Rtx Corporation)
• Inventors: Adams, Vinh, Dwelly, Wesley
• Granted Patent: US 7,379,017 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 342/28
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 13/18 wherein range gates are used
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 13/522 using transmissions of interrupted pulse modulated waves
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 13/56 for presence detection presence detection using near field arrangements G01V3/00, e.g. G01V3/08, G01V3/12; burglar, theft or intruder alarms with electrical actuation G08B13/22 - G08B13/26

Abstract

A pulsed radar system uses phase noise compensation to reduce phase noise due to drift of the reference oscillator to enable detection of micro movements and particularly human motion such as walking, breathing or heartbeat. The noise level due to A/D sampling must be sufficiently low for the phase noise compensation to be effective. As this is currently beyond state-of-the-art for high bandwidth A/D converters used in traditional receiver design, the receiver is suitably reconfigured to use analog range gates and narrowband A/D sampling having sufficiently low noise level. As technology continues to improve, the phase compensation techniques may be directly applicable to the high bandwidth A/D samples in traditional receiver designs. Whether phase compensation is applied to traditional receiver designs or a receiver configured with analog range gates, the steps are essentially the same: data is processed to position a reference range bin (either an analog range gate or a particular time sample) on a stationary reference and the phase variation of that reference range bin is used to compensate the phase of target data in range bins (either an ensemble of range gates or other time samples) near the stationary reference. This effectively moves the radar system and particularly the reference oscillator to the stationary reference thereby greatly reducing oscillator drift and phase noise and decoupling the stand-off range from the level of phase noise.

Claims

1. A method of reducing noise in a pulsed radar system, comprising:

Transmitting pulses and receiving return signals to place an analog reference range gate on a stationary reference;

Placing an ensemble of analog range gates in close proximity to the stationary reference; and

Transmitting pulses and receiving return signals to collect data for said reference and ensemble of range gates and rotate the phase of such ensemble data by a phase shift of the reference data.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the return signals are gated by the range gates to pass respective pulse trains, band pass filtered to extract respective center spectral lines and A/D sampled.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein band pass filtering extracts only the center spectral line and a narrow Doppler frequency band around the center line.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the narrow Doppler frequency band is less than or equal to 200 Hz.

5. The method of claim 2, wherein the bandwidth of the A/D sampling is at least a factor of ten less than the bandwidth of the transmit pulses.

6. The method of claim 2, wherein the center spectral lines are multiplexed prior to A/D sampling.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the ensemble comprises a plurality of overlapping analog range gates.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the ensemble is placed within 50 M of the stationary reference.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the ensemble is placed adjacent the stationary reference and covers an instantaneous area no greater than 50 M.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the ensemble is placed behind the stationary reference.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the data is collected and phase shifted by,

(a) Collecting a data set from the reference and ensemble of range gates;

(b) Calculating a first average phase for each gate;

(c) Collecting another data set from the reference and ensemble of range gates;

(d) Calculating a next average phase for each gate;

(e) Subtracting the next average phase of the reference gate from the first average phase of the reference gate to calculate the phase shift;

(f) Rotating the next average phase of each range gate in the ensemble by the phase shift; and

(g) Repeating steps c through f for a plurality of data sets.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the data sets are collected by gating the return signals by the range gates to pass respective pulse trains, band pass filtering the pulse trains to extract respective center spectral lines and A/D sampling the center spectral lines.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein during data collection for each said transmission pulse a return signal from the stationary reference is gated by the reference range gate and a return signal from a target is gated by at least one ensemble range gate.

14. The method of claim 11, wherein the average phase is the value in the DC bin of an FFT calculated on the data set.

15. A micro movement radar system, comprising:

a reference oscillator for generating AC signals;

a pulse forming network that forms pulses from the AC signals;

an antenna that transmits the pulses and receives return pulses;

a receiver including a plurality of analog range gates for receiving return signals that lie within a time window with respect to the transmit pulse,

an A/D converter that converts the gated signals into a digital signal;

a timing generator that generates clock signals to transmit the pulse and to activate the analog range gates; and

a processor that controls the timing generator to (a) transmit pulses and activate the range gates to place an analog reference range gate on a stationary reference, (b) place an ensemble of analog range gates in close proximity to the stationary reference, and (c) transmit pulses and receiver return signals to collect data from the digital signal for said range gates and rotate the phase of such ensemble data by a phase shift of the reference data.

16. The micro movement radar system of claim 15, wherein the receiver further comprises a plurality of band pass filters for filtering respective pulse trains to extract center spectra lines that are passed to the A/D converter.

17. A method of reducing noise in a pulsed radar system, comprising:

(a) Transmitting pulses and receiving return signals to place an analog reference range gate on a stationary reference;

(b) Placing an ensemble of analog range gates in close proximity to the stationary reference;

(c) Transmitting pulses and receiving return signals to collect data for said reference and ensemble of range gates, said return signals being gated by the analog range gates to form respective pulse trains that are band pass filtered to extract a center spectral line, multiplexed and A/D sampled;

(d) Calculating a phase shift for said reference range gate data between a first data set of digital samples and a next data set;

(e) Rotating the phase of the ensemble data for the next data set by the phase shift; and

(f) repeating steps c through e for a plurality of next data sets.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the bandwidth of the A/D sampling is at least a factor of ten less than the bandwidth of the transmit pulses.

19. The method of claim 17, wherein the ensemble comprises a plurality of overlapping analog range gates.

20. A method of reducing phase noise in a pulsed radar system, comprising:

(a) Transmitting pulses and receiving return signals to position a reference range bin on a stationary reference;

(b) Transmitting pulses and receiving return signals to collect data sets from said stationary reference and a target in close proximity to the stationary reference;

(c) Calculating a phase shift for said reference range bin between a first data set and a next data set;

(d) Rotating the phase of the target data for range bins near the reference range bin in the next data set by the phase shift; and

(e) repeating steps b through d for a plurality of next data sets.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein the return signals are A/D sampled to generate time samples associated with respective range bins.

22. The method of claim 21, wherein the return signals are A/D sampled at a bandwidth on the order of the bandwidth of the transmit pulses.

23. The method of claim 21, wherein the time samples are represented as I/Q pairs.

24. The method of claim 21, wherein the stationary reference is located by selecting an m^th time sample having a large amplitude indicative of the stationary reference.

25. The method of claim 24, wherein the phase shift is calculated between the m^th sample in the first data set and the next data set and used to rotate the phase of the time samples in range bins near the m^th time sample in the next data set.

26. The method of claim 20, wherein the return signals are gated through a plurality of analog range gates corresponding to respective range bins to pass respective pulse trains, band pass filtered and A/D sampled.

27. The method of claim 26, wherein the return signals are A/D sampled at a bandwidth at least a factor of ten less than the bandwidth of the transmit pulses.

28. The method of claim 26, wherein the time samples are represented as I/Q pairs.

29. The method of claim 26, wherein the stationary reference is located by positioning a reference analog range gate where a large amplitude indicative of the stationary reference is detected.

30. The method of claim 29, wherein the phase shift is calculated for the reference analog range gate between the first data set and the next data set and used to rotate the phase of the other analog range gates in the next data set.

31. A micro movement radar system, comprising:

a reference oscillator for generating AC signals;

a pulse forming network that forms pulses from the AC signals;

an antenna that transmits the pulses and receives return signals;

a receiver for receiving return signals,

an A/D converter that converts the return signal into a digital samples;

a timing generator that generates clock signals to transmit the pulse and to activate the analog range gates; and

a processor that controls the timing generator to transmit pulses and process return signals in successive data sets to (a) place a reference range bin on a stationary reference, (b) calculate a phase shift for the reference range bin between a first data set and a next data set and (c) rotate the phase of range bins near the reference range bin in the next data set by the phase shift of the reference data.

32. The micro movement radar system of claim 31, wherein the A/D converter has a bandwidth on the order of the bandwidth of the transmitted pulses, said processor selecting a reference digital sample having a large amplitude indicative of a stationary reference as the reference range bin, calculating a phase shift for the reference digital sample between the first and next data sets and rotating the phase of digital samples near the reference digital sample in the next data set by the phase shift.

33. The micro movement radar system of claim 31, wherein the receiver comprises a plurality of analog range gates corresponding to respective range bins to gate the return signals and pass respective pulse trains, a plurality of band pass filters to extract spectral lines from the pulse trains and a mux that multiplexes the spectral lines, said A/D converter sampling the multiplexed spectral lines at a bandwidth at least a factor of ten less than the bandwidth of the transmission pulses, said processor positioning a reference analog range gate on the stationary reference as the reference range bin, calculating a phase shift for the reference analog range gate between the first and next data sets and rotating the phase of the other range gates in the next data set by the phase shift.