Methods and apparatus to test RADAR integrated circuits

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11899129-B2
Application number	US-202217989401-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Nov 17, 2022
Priority date	May 31, 2019
Publication date	Feb 13, 2024
Grant date	Feb 13, 2024

Abstract

Methods, apparatus, systems and articles of manufacture are disclosed to test RADAR integrated circuits. A radar circuit comprising a local oscillator (LO), a transmitter coupled to the LO and configured to be coupled to a transmission network, a receiver configured to be coupled to the transmission network, and a controller coupled to the LO, the transmitter, and the receiver, the controller to cause the LO to generate a frequency modulated continuous waveform (FMCW), cause the transmitter to modulate the FMCW as a modulated FMCW, cause the transmitter to transmit the modulated FMCW via the transmission network and the receiver to obtain a received FMCW from the transmission network, and in response to obtaining the received FMCW from the receiver, generate a performance characteristic of the radar circuit based on the received FMCW.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A radar circuit comprising:
a local oscillator (LO);
a transmitter coupled to the LO and configured to be coupled to a transmission network;
a receiver configured to be coupled to the transmission network; and
a controller coupled to the LO, the transmitter, and the receiver, wherein the controller is configured to:
cause the LO to generate a frequency modulated continuous waveform (FMCW);
cause the transmitter to modulate the FMCW to output a modulated FMCW;
cause the transmitter to transmit the modulated FMCW to the transmission network to obtain an output signal from the transmission network; and
cause the receiver to output a receiver FMCW in response to the output signal;
wherein the controller is further configured to compare the receiver FMCW with an expected FMCW for the receiver with respect to a performance characteristic of the radar circuit.

2. The radar circuit of claim 1 , wherein the output signal has a functional relationship to the modulated FMCW with respect to the performance characteristic.

3. The radar circuit of claim 1 , wherein the controller is configured to cause the transmitter to modulate the FMCW via a binary phase modulation.

4. The radar circuit of claim 1 , wherein the FMCW is a signal that ramps from about seventy-seven gigahertz to about eighty-one gigahertz.

5. The radar circuit of claim 1 , wherein the receiver is a first receiver, the receiver FMCW is a first receiver FMCW associated with the first receiver, and the expected FMCW is a first expected FMCW associated with the first receiver, the radar circuit further including a second receiver, a second receiver FMCW associated with the second receiver, and a second expected FMCW associated with the second receiver, and wherein:
the output signal of the transmission network is divided via a power divider of the transmission network into a first output signal and a second output signal;
the controller is configured to cause the first receiver to output the first receiver FMCW in response to the first output signal, and to cause the second receiver to output the second receiver FMCW in response to the second output signal; and
the controller is configured to compare the first receiver FMCW with the first expected FMCW and compare the second receiver FMCW with the second expected FMCW;
wherein the performance characteristic includes a characteristic from a group consisting of: a signal to noise ratio of the received FMCW at one of the first receiver or the second receiver, signal power of the received FMCW at one of the first receiver or the second receiver, and gain and phase mismatch between the first receiver and the second receiver.

6. The radar circuit of claim 5 , wherein the controller is configured to transmit a status signal to a device to cause the device to act on the radar circuit based on a quality of the performance characteristic and when the status signal indicates that the radar circuit is configured to be removed from production, the device is configured to remove the radar circuit from production.

7. The radar circuit of claim 6 , wherein the quality of the performance characteristic is based on a threshold value corresponding to a characteristic from a group consisting of: a value of the signal to noise ratio, a value for the signal power, and a value for the gain and phase mismatch.

8. A method to test a radar circuit including an oscillator, a transmitter, and multiple receivers, the method comprising:
generating, by the oscillator, a frequency modulated continuous waveform (FMCW);
modulating, by the transmitter, the FMCW to produce a modulated FMCW;
transmitting, by the transmitter, the modulated FMCW to a transmission network;
processing, by the transmission network, the modulated FMCW to generate an internal signal;
outputting, by the transmission network, a receiver input signal for each of the multiple receivers based on the internal signal;
outputting, by each of the multiple receivers, a corresponding output signal based on the corresponding receiver input signal; and
comparing each output signal to an expected output signal for the corresponding receiver.

9. The method of claim 8 , wherein the output signals of the multiple receivers are combined and transmitted to a controller for the comparing.

10. The method of claim 8 , wherein the transmitter modulates the FMCW via a binary phase modulation.

11. The method of claim 8 , wherein the FMCW is a signal that ramps from about seventy-seven gigahertz to about eighty-one gigahertz.

12. The method of claim 8 , further comprising multiple transmitters including the transmitter, wherein the modulating includes modulating by each of the multiple transmitters, the FMCW to produce a corresponding modulated FMCW, the transmitting includes transmitting, by each of the multiple transmitters, the corresponding modulated FMCW to the transmission network, and the processing includes combining, by the transmission network, the corresponding modulated FMCW to generate the internal signal.

13. The method of claim 12 , further including transmitting a status signal to a device to cause the device to act on the radar circuit based on a quality of a performance characteristic of the radar circuit and when the status signal indicates that the radar circuit is to be removed from production, the device is to remove the radar circuit from production.

14. The method of claim 13 , wherein the quality of the performance characteristic is based on a threshold value corresponding to a characteristic from a group consisting of: a value of a signal to noise ratio of the receiver input signal at one of the multiple receivers, a value for a signal power of the receiver input signal at one of the multiple receivers, and a value for gain and phase mismatch between two of the multiple receivers.

15. An apparatus to test a radar circuit that includes an oscillator, a transmitter, and a receiver, the apparatus comprising:
a modulator manager configured to:
cause the oscillator to generate a frequency modulated continuous waveform (FMCW);
cause the transmitter to modulate the FMCW to output a modulated FMCW;
cause the transmitter to transmit the modulated FMCW via a transmission network to obtain an output signal from the transmission network;
cause the receiver output a receiver FMCW in response to the output signal; and
a signal analyzer configured to compare the receiver FMCW with an expected FMCW for the receiver with respect to a performance characteristic of the radar circuit.

16. The apparatus of claim 15 , wherein the output signal has a functional relationship to the modulated FMCW with respect to the performance characteristic.

17. The apparatus of claim 15 , wherein the modulator manager is to cause the transmitter to modulate the FMCW via a binary phase modulation.

18. The apparatus of claim 15 , wherein the FMCW is a signal that ramps from about seventy-seven gigahertz to about eighty-one gigahertz.

19. The apparatus of claim 15 , further including an alert generator to transmit a status signal to a device to act on the radar circuit based on a quality of the performance characteristic and when the status signal indicates that the radar circuit is to be removed from production, the device is to remove the radar circuit from production.

20. The apparatus of claim 15 , wherein the performance characteristic includes a characteristic from a group consisting of: a signal to noise ratio of the receiver FMCW, and signal power of the

Assignees

• Texas Instruments Inc

Inventors

• Subburaj Karthik
• Parkar Zahir Ibrahim
• Dandu Krishnanshu
• Dudhia Vashishth

Classifications

• G01S7/4056 Primary

  specially adapted to FMCW · CPC title

• G01S7/352

  Receivers · 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

• G01S7/356

  involving particularities of FFT processing · CPC title

• G01S7/032

  Constructional details for solid-state radar subsystems · CPC title