High duty cycle radar with near/far pulse compression interference mitigation
First Claim
1. A method of determining range information associated with a target, the method comprising:
- receiving a near return signal reflected from a near target;
receiving a far return signal reflected from a far target, at least a portion of the far return signal overlapping in time with the near return signal;
generating a reference signal that corresponds to the far return signal;
weighting at least part of either the far return signal or the reference signal to produce a weighted far return signal or a weighted reference signal, respectively; and
performing pulse compression using the weighted far return signal or the weighted reference signal to determine range information associated with the far target that is at least partially free of interference from the near return signal.
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Accused Products
Abstract
In conventional pulse compression processing, sidelobes from strong return signals may hide correlation peaks associated with weaker return signals. Example embodiments include methods of mitigating this near/far interference by weighting a received return signal or corresponding reference signal based the return signal'"'"'s time of arrival, then performing pulse compression using the weighted signal to produce a correlation peak that is not hidden by sidelobes from another return. Multi-frequency processing can also be used to reduce the pulse width of the transmitted pulses and received return signals, thereby mitigating near/far interference by decreasing the overlap between signals from nearby targets. Weighting can be combined with multi-frequency pulse transmission and reception to further enhance the fidelity of the processed correlation peak. Weighting and multi-frequency processing also enable higher duty cycles than are possible with conventional pulse compression radars.
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Citations
28 Claims
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1. A method of determining range information associated with a target, the method comprising:
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receiving a near return signal reflected from a near target; receiving a far return signal reflected from a far target, at least a portion of the far return signal overlapping in time with the near return signal; generating a reference signal that corresponds to the far return signal; weighting at least part of either the far return signal or the reference signal to produce a weighted far return signal or a weighted reference signal, respectively; and performing pulse compression using the weighted far return signal or the weighted reference signal to determine range information associated with the far target that is at least partially free of interference from the near return signal. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11)
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12. An apparatus for determining range information associated with a target, the apparatus comprising:
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an antenna configured to receive near and far return signals from near and far targets, respectively, at least a portion of the far return signal overlapping with the near return signal; a weighting block operably coupled to the antenna and configured to weight at least part of far return signal or a reference signal corresponding to the far return signal to produce a weighted far return signal or a weighted reference signal, respectively; and a pulse compression processor operably coupled to the weighting block and configured to determine range information associated with the far target by performing pulse compression processing on the weighted far return signal or the weighted reference signal. - View Dependent Claims (13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18)
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19. A method of processing a radar signal, the method comprising:
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receiving a first return signal that overlaps in time with a second return signal; sampling the first return signal to produce a first return vector; weighting samples in the first return vector based on an amount of overlap between the first and second return signals to produce a weighted first return vector; and processing the weighted first return vector to obtain range information. - View Dependent Claims (20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26)
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27. An apparatus for determining range information associated with a target, the apparatus comprising:
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means for receiving a near return signal reflected from a near target and for receiving a far return signal reflected from a far target, at least a portion of the far return signal overlapping in time with the near return signal; means for weighting at least part of the portion of the far return signal that overlaps with the near return signal to produce a weighted far return signal that is at least partially free of interference from the near return signal; and means for performing pulse compression on the weighted far return signal to determine range information associated with the far target.
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28. A method of determining range information associated with a target that is farther from a receiver than at least one other target, the method comprising:
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receiving a plurality of return signals reflected from the target, each return signal being at a different carrier frequency; generating a plurality of reference signals, each reference signal corresponding to a respective return signal; weighting at least two of either the plurality of return signals or the plurality of reference signals to produce at least two weighted return signals or at least two weighted reference signals, respectively; and performing pulse compression on the weighted return signals or the weighted reference signals to determine range information associated with the target that is at least partially free of interference from the at least one other target.
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Specification