Radar distance measuring device

• US 6,373,427 B1
• Filed: 05/12/2000
• Issued: 04/16/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 08/11/1997
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Cruise Munich GmbH
• Original Assignee: Mikrowellen-Technologie Und Sensoren GmbH
• Inventors: Hohne, Felix
• Primary Examiner(s): Sotomayor, John B.
• Application Number:
  US09/485,380
• Time in Patent Office: 704 Days
• Field of Search: 342/118, 342/127, 342/128, 342/129, 342/130, 342/131, 342/134, 342/135, 342/137, 342/145, 342/192, 342/195, 342/196
• US Class Current: 342/128
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 13/343 using sawtooth modulation
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 7/352 Receivers
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 7/354 Extracting wanted echo-signals Doppler systems G01S13/50
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 7/356 involving particularities of FFT processing
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 7/4008 of transmitters

Abstract

The invention relates to a radar distance measuring device. An especially linear frequency-modulated high frequency signal is emitted via an antenna and mixed with an echo signal reflected by a target object whose distance is to be determined. The distance of said target object can then be calculated by analyzing the frequency of the mix result. The aim of the invention is to improve the distance resolution or increase the accuracy of measurement. To this end, a first frequency analysis is first carried out to obtain a rough analysis result. Said rough analysis result is used to control a filtering device which then restricts the mix result in its time range to a segment around the frequency of the target object. A discrete Fourier transformation is then carried out for this segment in order to produce an analysis result with a more refined scanning step than the first frequency analysis. The measuring result is further refined, preferably by taking into account not only the frequency of the mix result as determined by the target object but also the phase relation of the oscillation of this frequency and by supplementing the measuring result with a corresponding wavelength fractional part.

Claims

1. A radar range measuring device comprising:

a transmitter for directing a frequency-modulated continuous radio frequency signal via an antenna onto a target object placed at the range to be determined;

a mixing stage for combining with one another, signals tapped from the transmitter, and echo signals received from the target object via the antenna or another antenna;

a frequency analysis device for frequency analysis of the mixing result; and

a display device for displaying the range corresponding to a target-object-specific frequency of the mixing result, wherein the frequency analysis device contains a first frequency analyzer for performing a fast Fourier transformation of the mixing result to generate a coarse analysis result;

a filter device being controlled by the coarse analysis result to select a segment of the mixing result which is limited to a frequency band which contains a target-object-specific frequency and which is bounded around the target-object-specific frequency in the time domain;

a second frequency analyzer for performing a band-selected discrete Fourier transform on the segment of the mixing result including the frequency band selected by the filter device, the second frequency analyzer being coupled to the display device, the second frequency analyzer using a sampling step which is refined relative to the sampling step of the first frequency analyzer.

2. The device according to claim 1, wherein the radio frequency signal of the transmitter has linear frequency modulation.

3. The device according to claim 1 comprising an analog-to-digital converter for digitizing the mixing result of the mixing stage, wherein the first frequency analyzer performs a digital fast Fourier transformation and the filter device is a digital group-delay-compensated bandpass filter.

4. The device according to claim 3 comprising an analog signal processing circuit is located between the mixing stage and the analog-to-digital converter.

5. The device according to claim 4, wherein the analog signal processing circuit contains at least one band-stop filter for suppressing interference frequencies in the frequency spectrum of the output signal of the mixer.

6. The device according to claim 4, wherein the analog processing circuit contains a differentiator to amplify the output signal of the mixer in direct dependence on the frequency of the output signal.

7. The device according to claim 4, wherein the analog signal processing circuit contains an antialiasing filter.

8. The device according to claim 1, wherein the second frequency analyzer supplies, in addition to information about the target-object-specific frequency of the mixing result of the mixing stage, an output signal corresponding to the phase position of the oscillation at the target-object-specific frequency, and wherein the radar range measuring device further comprises a computation device for converting the phase position into a corresponding fraction of the wavelength of the target-object-specific frequency and for adding the fraction to the sum of the whole wavelengths calculated from the target-object-specific frequency in order to refine the measurement result.

9. The device according to claim 1, comprising an analog-to-digital converter for sampling the mixing result, wherein the sampling is performed with omission of first samples in measuring cycles with a decreasing number of samples such that the target-object-specific frequency in the mixing result of the mixing stage lies approximately mid-way between the sampling steps of the discrete Fourier transformation.

10. A radar range measuring device with a transmitter directing a frequency-modulated continuous radio frequency signal via an antenna onto a target object placed at the range to be determined;

with a mixing stage which combines with one another, on the one hand, signals tapped from the transmitter, and, on the other hand, echo signals received from the target object via the antenna or another antenna;

with a frequency analysis device for frequency analysis of the mixing result; and

with a display device to display the range corresponding to a target-object-specific frequency of the mixing result, characterized in that the frequency analysis device contains a first frequency analyzer which is used to control a filter device which selects a section of the mixing result which contains a target-object-specific frequency and is bounded around that frequency in the time domain, over which a discrete Fourier transformation is performed by means of another frequency analyzer which is coupled to the display device, using a sampling step which is refined relative to the sampling step of the first frequency analyzer, and characterized in that the frequency-modulated continuous radio frequency signal is generated by a voltage-controlled oscillator whose tuning voltage is supplied by a phase comparator via loop filter, specifically in the form of an I controller or a PI controller or a PID controller, one input signal to the phase comparator being supplied from the output of the voltage-controlled oscillator via a frequency divider, while the other input signal to the phase comparator is a frequency setpoint-value signal corresponding to a fraction of the frequency of the transmitter output oscillation corresponding to the divider ratio of the frequency divider.

11. The device according to claim 10, characterized in that the frequency setpoint-value signal supplied to the phase comparator is produced by a circuit unit for direct digital synthesis which receives from a processor digital words corresponding to consecutive frequency values in dependence on the frequency modulation of the transmitter.

12. The device according to claim 10, characterized in that for the linear frequency modulation of the radio frequency signal the latter is modulated in a stepwise and quasistationary linear manner and is recalibrated during the sampling steps.