Antenna Device and Signal Processing Method

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2016240931-A1
Application number	US-201415025195-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Jul 14, 2014
Priority date	Sep 27, 2013
Publication date	Aug 18, 2016
Grant date	—

Abstract

An antenna device includes a plurality of antenna elements respectively configured to receive incident waves coming from an object, a modulating unit respectively configured to modulates a first received signal of the incident waves output from the antenna elements into a second received signal, the second received signals having a plurality of different frequencies and phases corresponding to polarization directions of the received incident waves, a synthesizing unit configured to synthesize the plurality of second received signals and generates a synthetic signal, a signal processing unit, configured to perform predetermined signal processing on the synthetic signal, and an extracting unit configured to extract third received signals for each frequency and each phase from the synthetic signal on which has been performed the predetermined signal processing.

First claim

1 . An antenna device comprising:
a plurality of antenna elements respectively configured to receive incident waves coming from an object and output a first received signal on a basis of a received incident waves, the plurality of antenna elements including at least a first antenna element that receives incident waves of a predetermined polarization direction and a second antenna element that receives incident waves of a polarization direction different from the incident waves received by the first antenna element; a plurality of modulating units respectively configured to modulate the first received signal output from the antenna element into a second received signal, the second received signals having a frequency corresponding to a position of the antenna element and having a phase corresponding to the polarization directions of the received incident waves received by the antenna element; a synthesizing unit configured to synthesize the plurality of second received signals respectively modulated by the plurality of modulating units and generate a synthetic signal; a signal processing unit configured to perform predetermined signal processing on the synthetic signal; and an extracting unit configured to extract third received signal from the synthetic signal on which has been performed the predetermined signal processing, each of the third received signals having a frequency and a phase equal to the frequency and the phase of the second received signal modulated by the modulating unit.

2 . The antenna device according to claim 1 ,
wherein the first antenna element receives the incident waves of a horizontal polarized component respectively, and the second antenna element receives the incident waves of a vertical polarized component respectively.

3 . The antenna device according to claim 1 , further comprising:
an array antenna in which the plurality of antenna elements are arranged in a two dimensional form, wherein the modulating unit modulates the first received signal output from the antenna element into the second received signal having a frequency corresponding to a position of the antenna element on the array antenna.

4 . The antenna device according to claim 3 ,
wherein the modulating unit extracts a difference between a frequency allocated to a row in which the antenna element is arranged and a frequency allocated to a column in which the antenna element is arranged as the frequency corresponding to the position of the antenna element on the array antenna.

5 . The antenna device according to claim 3 ,
wherein the plurality of modulating units modulate, under a predetermined condition, the plurality of the first received signals output from the plurality of antenna elements corresponding to a predetermined receiving area of the array antenna into the second received signals having the same frequency and the same phase each other.

6 . The antenna device according to claim 3 ,
wherein the plurality of modulating units modulate the first received signals output from the antenna elements consecutively arranged in an array direction corresponding to a vertical direction of a receiving area of the array antenna into the second received signals having the same frequency and the same phase each other.

7 . The antenna device according to claim 1 ,
wherein the modulating units modulate the plurality of the first received signals into the second received signals having frequencies within a specific frequency band different from a frequency band of frequencies before modulating when modulating the plurality of the first received signals into the second received signals having a plurality of different frequencies each other according to the positions of the antenna elements.

8 . The antenna device according to claim 7 ,
wherein the specific frequency band is decided on the basis of a conversion period of the second received signal at which the second received signal is converted from an analog signal to a digital signal and/or a receiving period of the incident waves.

9 . The antenna device according to claim 1 ,
wherein the extracting unit extracts the third received signals from the synthetic signal by performing phase synchronization on the synthetic signal using the phases of the second received signals modulated by the modulating units, each of the third received signals having the frequency equal to the frequency of the second received signal modulated by the modulating units.

10 . The antenna device according to claim 1 , further comprising:
a control unit configured to perform a modulation control process for controlling the plurality of modulating units so that the first received signals are modulated into the second received signals having the same frequency each other for every two or more antenna elements.

11 . The antenna device according to claim 10 ,
wherein the control unit determines a degree of influence of a noise on the first received signal output from each of the antenna elements on the basis of an error of the first received signal output from each of the antenna elements, and performs the modulation control process when the degree of the influence of the noise is determined to be equal to a predetermined value or more.

12 . The antenna device according to claim 10 , further comprising:
an acquiring unit configured to acquire a moving speed of a moving object equipped with the antenna device, wherein the control unit modulates the first received signals output from the antenna elements so that the slower the moving speed of the moving object is, the more number of the first received signals are modulated into the second received signals having the same frequency each other, compared to when the moving speed of the moving object is fast.

13 . The antenna device according to claim 1 , further comprising:
a detecting unit configured to detect the object on the basis of the first received signal, wherein the modulating unit modulates only the first received signal on the basis of a horizontal polarized component until the detecting unit detects the object using the first received signal of the horizontal polarized component, when the detecting unit detects the object using the first received signal on the basis of the horizontal polarized component, the modulating unit modulates the first received signal of the horizontal polarized component and the first received signal of a vertical polarized component.

14 . The antenna device according to claim 1 , further comprising:
a transmitter configured to transmit transmission waves to the object, wherein the antenna element receives electromagnetic waves as the incident waves, the electromagnetic waves coming as the transmission waves transmitted by the transmitter and reflected by the object.

15 . An antenna device comprising:
a plurality of first antenna elements respectively configured to receive a first incident waves of a predetermined polarization direction coming from an object and output a first received signal on a basis of a received first incident waves; a plurality of second antenna elements respectively configured to receive a second incident waves of a polarization direction different from the first incident waves received by the first antenna element and output a second received signal on the basis of a received second incident waves; a plurality of first modulating units respectively configured to modulate the first received signal output from the first antenna element into a third received signal having a first phase and a first frequency which differs corresponding to each of the first antenn

Assignees

• Nissan Motor

Inventors

• Nakamura Mitsunori
• Satoh Hiroshi
• Nishioka Shinichi
• Nishiuchi Hidekazu

Classifications

• 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

• H01Q21/24 Primary

  Combinations of antenna units polarised in different directions for transmitting or receiving circularly and elliptically polarised waves or waves linearly polarised in any direction {(circularly polarised patch antennas H01Q9/0428; circularly polarised horns H01Q13/0241; cross-polarised horns H01Q13/0258; polarisation converters H01Q15/242; cross-polarised rear feeds H01Q19/136; crossed polarisation dual antenna H01Q25/001)} · CPC title

• G01S13/584

  adapted for simultaneous range and velocity measurements · CPC title

• G01S13/931

  of land vehicles · CPC title

• G01S7/352

  Receivers · CPC title