MIMO antenna with elevation detection

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9541639-B2
Application number	US-201514880376-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 12, 2015
Priority date	Mar 5, 2014
Publication date	Jan 10, 2017
Grant date	Jan 10, 2017

Abstract

A multiple input multiple output (MIMO) antenna for a radar system includes a receive antenna, a first transmit-antenna-arrangement, and a second transmit-antenna-arrangement. The receive-antenna is configured to detect radar-signals reflected by a target toward the receive-antenna. The first transmit-antenna-arrangement includes a first vertical-array of radiator elements and a second vertical-array of radiator elements. The first transmit-antenna-arrangement is configured so the first vertical-array can be selectively coupled to a transmitter independent of the second vertical-array. The second transmit-antenna-arrangement includes a third vertical-array of radiator elements and a fourth vertical-array of radiator elements. The second transmit-antenna-arrangement is configured so the third vertical-array can be selectively coupled to a transmitter independent of the fourth vertical-array. The second transmit-antenna-arrangement is vertically offset from the first transmit-antenna-arrangement by a vertical offset distance selected so an elevation angle to the target can be determined by the receive-antenna.

First claim

We claim:

1. A multiple input multiple output (MIMO) antenna for a radar system, said antenna consisting of:
a first transmit-antenna-arrangement that consists of a first vertical-array of radiator elements and a second vertical-array of radiator elements, said first transmit-antenna-arrangement configured so the first vertical-array can be selectively coupled to a transmitter independent of the second vertical-array; and
a second transmit-antenna-arrangement that consists of a third vertical-array of radiator elements and a fourth vertical-array of radiator elements that match the first vertical-array and the second vertical-array, said second transmit-antenna-arrangement configured so the third vertical-array can be selectively coupled to a transmitter independent of the fourth vertical-array, wherein the second transmit-antenna-arrangement is vertically offset from the first transmit-antenna-arrangement by a vertical offset distance selected so the MIMO antenna can be used to determine an elevation angle to a target, wherein the vertical offset distance is such that a horizontal line passes through both the first transmit-antenna-arrangement and the second transmit-antenna-arrangement; and
a receive-antenna configured to detect radar-signals transmitted by the first transmit-antenna-arrangement and the second transmit-antenna-arrangement and reflected by the target toward the receive-antenna, whereby the antenna can be used to determine the elevation angle based on a phase offset of radar-signals detected by the receive-antenna originating from the first transmit-antenna-arrangement and the second transmit-antenna-arrangement.

Assignees

• Delphi Tech Inc

Inventors

• Searcy James F
• Alland Stephen W

Classifications

• G01S13/003

  Bistatic radar systems; Multistatic radar systems · CPC title

• G01S7/03

  Details of HF subsystems specially adapted therefor, e.g. common to transmitter and receiver · CPC title

• G01S7/2813

  Means providing a modification of the radiation pattern for cancelling noise, clutter or interfering signals, e.g. side lobe suppression, side lobe blanking, null-steering arrays (specially adapted to secondary radar systems G01S13/762; aerials or aerials systems H01Q21/29, H01Q25/00) · CPC title

• G01S7/354

  Extracting wanted echo-signals (Doppler systems G01S13/50) · CPC title

• H01Q21/08

  the units being spaced along or adjacent to a rectilinear path {(waveguide fed H01Q21/0037)} · CPC title