Radar device and method of operating a radar device

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10031210-B2
Application number	US-201314778097-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 21, 2013
Priority date	Mar 21, 2013
Publication date	Jul 24, 2018
Grant date	Jul 24, 2018

Abstract

A radar device includes a RF signal source, two or more antenna interface units, a feed network, and a control unit. The RF signal source is arranged to provide a RF signal; each of the antenna interface units includes an antenna port and one of the following: an amplifier and a mixer; the feed network includes two or more buffers, each buffer has an active and an inactive state; the control unit is arranged to generate or receive a selection signal which specifies none, one, or more of the antenna interface units as active antenna interface units and the remaining antenna interface units as inactive antenna interface units; the control unit is arranged to activate and deactivate the buffers in dependence on the selection signal so as to feed the RF signal to the none, one, or more active antenna interface units and not to the inactive antenna interface units.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A radar device comprising: a radar frequency (RF) signal source; two or more antenna interface units; a feed network; and a control unit, wherein
the RF signal source is arranged to provide an RF signal;
each of the antenna interface units comprises an antenna port and one of the following: an amplifier and a mixer; wherein the amplifier is arranged to amplify the RF signal and to provide it to the antenna port and the mixer is arranged to generate an intermediate frequency signal by mixing the RF signal with a reception signal received via the antenna port;
the feed network comprises two or more buffers, each buffer has an active state, in which the buffer is transmissive for the RF signal, and an inactive state, in which the buffer is substantially nontransmissive for the RF signal;
each of the buffers comprises two or more cascodes connected in series for transferring the RF signal; and
the control unit is arranged to switch each of the buffers to one of the active state and the inactive state in dependence on a selection signal, wherein the selection signal specifies none, one, or more of the antenna interface units as active antenna interface units and the remaining none, one, or more antenna interface units as inactive antenna interface units, and wherein a first one of the buffers is arranged to feed the RF signal to a first respective one of the active antenna interface units when the first buffer is switched to the active state, others of the buffers block the feed of the RF signal to the inactive antenna interface units when the other buffers are switched to the inactive state, and the control unit is further arranged to switch the first buffer to the active state by energizing the respective two or more cascodes and to switch the other buffers to the inactive state by deenergizing the respective two or more cascodes.

2. The radar device of claim 1 , wherein the buffers are arranged in one or more pairs of buffers, each pair forming a splitter unit.

3. The radar device of claim 2 , wherein the two buffers in each splitter unit are identical.

4. The radar device of claim 3 , wherein the splitter units are connected to form a binary tree having two or more levels.

5. The radar device of claim 4 , wherein the splitter units at a same level of the two or more levels within the binary tree are identical.

6. The radar device of claim 1 , wherein each of the antenna interface units comprises the amplifier but not the mixer.

7. The radar device of claim 1 , wherein each of the antenna interface units comprises the mixer but not the amplifier.

8. The radar device of claim 1 , wherein each of the buffers comprises a transmission line having a length that is greater than a wavelength of the RF signal.

9. The radar device of claim 1 , wherein each of the cascodes comprises the following components connected in series in this order: a first bipolar transistor, a transmission line, and a second bipolar transistor.

10. The radar device of claim 1 , wherein each of the antenna interface units further comprises a balun connected between the antenna port and the power amplifier or mixer.

11. A method of operating a radar device comprising a radar frequency (RF) signal source, two or more antenna interface units, and a feed network, wherein
the RF signal source provides an RF signal;
each of the antenna interface units comprises an antenna port and one of the following: an amplifier and a mixer; wherein the amplifier is arranged to amplify the RF signal and to provide it to the antenna port and the mixer is arranged to generate an intermediate frequency signal by mixing the RF signal with a reception signal received via the antenna port;
the feed network comprises two or more buffers; each buffer has an active state, in which the buffer is transmissive for the RF signal, and an inactive state, in which the buffer is substantially nontransmissive for the RF signal;
each of the buffers comprises two or more cascodes connected in series for transferring the RF signal;
and the method comprises:
switching a first one of the buffers to the active state in dependency upon a selection signal, wherein the selection signal specifies none, one, or more of the antenna interface units as active antenna interface units and the remaining none, one, or more antenna interface units as inactive antenna interface units, and wherein the first buffer is arranged to feed the RF signal to a first respective one of the active antenna interface units when the first buffer is switched to the active state, and wherein switching the first buffer to the active state comprises energizing the respective two or more cascodes, and
switching others of the buffers to the inactive state in dependency upon the selection signal, wherein the other buffers block the feed of the RF signal to the inactive antenna interface units when the other buffers are switched to the inactive state, and wherein switching the other buffers to the inactive state comprises deenergizing the respective two or more cascodes.

Assignees

• Li Hao
• Yin Yi
• Nxp Usa Inc

Inventors

• Li Hao
• Yin Yi

Classifications

• G01S13/931

  of land vehicles · CPC title

• G01S7/036 Primary

  involving a transfer mixer · CPC title

• G01S13/34

  using transmission of continuous, frequency-modulated waves while heterodyning the received signal, or a signal derived therefrom, with a locally-generated signal related to the contemporaneously transmitted signal · CPC title

• G01S7/034 Primary

  Duplexers (switching devices for waveguides H01P1/10; transmit-receive switching in transceivers H04B1/44) · CPC title