Radar apparatus and signal generating apparatus

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10247810-B2
Application number	US-201615043763-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Feb 15, 2016
Priority date	Mar 3, 2015
Publication date	Apr 2, 2019
Grant date	Apr 2, 2019

Abstract

A radar apparatus includes a correlator which, in operation, calculates a correlation value between the digital transmission pulse signals and the digital reception pulse signals, an error estimator which, in operation, estimates, on the basis of the correlation value, an I component error and a Q component error included in the digital reception pulse signals, a correction parameter calculator which, in operation, calculates a correction parameter for correcting the I component error and the Q component error, and an error corrector which, in operation, corrects, on the basis of the correction parameter, the I component error and the Q component error included in at least one of the digital transmission pulse signals and the digital reception pulse signals.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A radar apparatus comprising:
a pulse generator which, in operation, sequentially generates, in transmission cycles, digital transmission pulse signals including an in-phase (I) component and a quadrature (Q) component;
a phase rotator which, in operation, sequentially applies, in the transmission cycles, a first phase rotation to the digital transmission pulse signals;
a digital-to-analog converter (DAC) which, in operation, converts the digital transmission pulse signals, to which the first phase rotation is applied, to a transmission baseband analog signal;
a transmitter which, in operation, converts the transmission baseband analog signal to a radar signal on a radio frequency and transmits the radar signal;
a receiver which, in operation, receives a reflected wave signal resulting from the radar signal being reflected on an object and converts the reflected wave signal to a reception baseband analog signal;
an analog-to-digital converter (ADC) which, in operation, converts the reception baseband analog signal to digital reception pulse signals including an in-phase (I) component and a quadrature (Q) component;
a correlator which, in operation, calculates a correlation value between the digital transmission pulse signals and the digital reception pulse signals;
an error estimator which, in operation, estimates, on the basis of the correlation value, an I component error and a Q component error included in the digital reception pulse signals;
a correction parameter calculator which, in operation, calculates a correction parameter for correcting the I component error and the Q component error; and
an error corrector which, in operation, corrects, on the basis of the correction parameter, the I component and the Q component included in at least one of the digital transmission pulse signals and the digital reception pulse signals.

2. The radar apparatus according to claim 1 , further comprising:
a reception phase rotator which, in operation, applies a second phase rotation to one of the digital reception pulse signals outputting from the ADC and the correlation value outputting from the correlator, the second phase rotation being a reverse phase rotation of the first phase rotation.

3. A signal generating apparatus comprising:
a pulse generator which, in operation, sequentially generates, in transmission cycles, digital transmission pulse signals including an in-phase (I) component and a quadrature (Q) component;
a phase rotator which, in operation, sequentially applies, in the transmission cycles, a first phase rotation to the digital transmission pulse signals;
a digital-to-analog converter (DAC) which, in operation, converts the digital transmission pulse signals, to which the first phase rotation is applied, to a transmission baseband analog signal and outputs the transmission baseband analog signal to a transmitter;
an analog-to-digital converter (ADC) which, in operation, inputs a reflected wave signal reflected by an object and received by a receiver as digital reception pulse signals;
a correlator which, in operation, calculates a correlation value between the digital transmission pulse signals and the digital reception pulse signals;
an error estimator which, in operation, estimates, on the basis of the correlation value, an I component error and a Q component error included in the digital reception pulse signals;
a correction parameter calculator which, in operation, calculates a correction parameter for correcting the I component error and the Q component error; and
an error corrector which, in operation, corrects, on the basis of the correction parameter, the I component and the Q component of at least one of the digital transmission pulse signals and the digital reception pulse signals.

4. The signal generating apparatus according to claim 3 , further comprising:
a reception phase rotator which, in operation, applies a second phase rotation to one of the digital reception pulse signals outputting from the ADC and the correlation value outputting from the correlator, the second phase rotation being a reverse phase rotation of the first phase rotation.

5. The signal generating apparatus according to claim 3 , wherein the ADC converts the reflected wave signal to the digital reception pulse signals.

Assignees

• Panasonic Corp

Inventors

• Morita Tadashi

Classifications

• G01S7/4021

  of receivers · CPC title

• G01S7/288 Primary

  Coherent receivers · CPC title

• G01S7/282

  Transmitters · CPC title

• G01S7/4004 Primary

  of parts of a radar system · CPC title

• G01S2007/2886

  Physics · mapped topic