The present disclosure relates to a radar apparatus that detects a target using a transmission wave that is frequency-modulated, and to an interference wave suppression device.
As sensors installed in vehicles, Frequency Modulated Continuous Wave (FMCW) radars and Fast Chirp Modulation (FCM) radars are becoming widespread. Such a FMCW radar has characteristics such that a circuit configuration is simple, and signal processing is easy because a frequency band of a reception beat signal is relatively low. The FMCW radar performs an up-chirp for increasing a frequency of a transmission wave and a down-chirp for decreasing the frequency of the transmission wave, and obtains reception beat signals based on the up-chirp and the down-chirp. The FMCW radar calculates a distance to a target, a relative velocity of the target, an azimuth angle of the target, and the like, based on a difference in frequencies in the reception beat signals. On the other hand, such a FCM radar performs one of the up-chirp and the down-chirp to obtain a reception beat signal. The FCM radar calculates a distance to a target, a relative velocity of the target, an azimuth angle of the target, and the like, based on a frequency and phase information of the reception beat signal. The FCM radar can be made lower in signal processing load than the FMCW radar because of the unnecessity of pairing the up-chirp with the down-chirp. In the following description, in a case where the FMCW radar and the FCM radar are not distinguished, they are referred to as a “radar” or a “radar apparatus”.
Patent Literature 1 discloses a technique that relates to a frequency modulation circuit installed in the FMCW radar and that is for obtaining high linearity of frequency modulation.
Patent Literature 1: Japanese Patent No. 6351910
With the widespread use of such radars, radars installed in vehicles are more likely to receive not only a reflected wave propagated by reflection of a transmission wave from a target, but also an interference wave that is a radio wave emitted from a radar of another vehicle.
In a radar apparatus disclosed in Patent Literature 1, signal processing is sometimes performed in a state in which a noise signal derived from an interference wave is superimposed on a reception beat signal derived from a reflected wave from a target. A decrease in a Signal to Noise Ratio (SNR) of the reception beat signal due to the superimposition of the noise signal results in deterioration of detection performance of the radar apparatus. The radar apparatus disclosed in Patent Literature 1 involves difficulty in stably detecting the target with high accuracy because its detection performance sometimes deteriorates owing to reception of the interference wave. Such difficulty is problematic.
The present disclosure has been made in view of the above, and an object of the present disclosure is to provide a radar apparatus capable of stably detecting a target with high accuracy.
In order to solve the above-described problem and achieve the object, a radar apparatus of the present disclosure includes: a transceiver to output a transmission wave that is frequency-modulated, and to receive a reflected wave propagated by reflection of the transmission wave from a target and to output a reception signal; and an interference wave suppression device to separate, when an interference wave is received together with the reflected wave, a noise signal derived from the interference wave from the reception signal and to suppress the noise signal, the interference wave being a radio wave other than the reflected wave and being frequency-modulated in a mode different from a mode of the transmission wave.
The radar apparatus according to the present disclosure has an effect capable of stably detecting the target with high accuracy.
Hereinafter, a radar apparatus and an interference wave suppression device according to an embodiment will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.
The radar apparatus 100 illustrated in
The high frequency circuit 17 outputs, via the transmission antenna 2, a transmission wave that is frequency-modulated. Additionally, the high frequency circuit 17 receives, via the reception antenna 1, a reflected wave propagated by reflection of the transmission wave from a target, and outputs a reception signal.
The high frequency circuit 17 includes a Voltage Controlled Oscillator (VCO) 10, a chirp signal generator 11 that generates a chirp signal, a Phase Locked Loop (PLL) 12, and a Loop Filter (LF) 13. The VCO 10, the chirp signal generator 11, the PLL 12, and the LF 13 constitute a local unit 37. The local unit 37 generates a modulated signal that is a frequency-modulated signal. In the following description, the modulated signal generated by the local unit 37 is also referred to as a local signal.
The reference signal REF and the chirp signal are input to the PLL 12. The PLL 12 frequency-modulates the reference signal REF with a modulation pattern based on the chirp signal. The signal frequency-modulated by the PLL 12 is band-limited by the LF 13 and input to the VCO 10. The VCO 10 outputs a high-frequency signal that is the modulated signal in cooperation with the PLL 12.
Additionally, the high frequency circuit 17 includes a Low Noise Amplifier (LNA) 3, MIXers (MIXs) 41 and 42, Intermediate Frequency Amplifiers (IFAs) 51 and 52, a Power Amplifier (PA) 15, and a phase shifter 16. The PA 15 amplifies the high-frequency signal output from the VCO 10 to a desired power level. The transmission antenna 2 converts the high-frequency signal output from the PA 15 into a transmission wave that is a radio wave, and emits the transmission wave into space.
The reception antenna 1 receives a reflected wave propagated by reflection of the transmission wave from a target, and converts the reflected wave into a reception signal. The LNA 3 amplifies the reception signal to a desired power level. The MIXs 41 and 42 each down-convert the reception signal by frequency conversion using the local signal. The MIXs 41 and 42 each reduce a frequency of the reception signal to a frequency of an Intermediate Frequency (IF) band by the down-conversion. The MIXs 41 and 42 output reception beat signals derived from the down-converted reception signal. The IFAs 51 and 52 amplify the reception beat signals to desired signal strength. The phase shifter 16 changes a phase of the reception beat signal output from the MIX 42 by 90 degrees. Thus, the high frequency circuit 17 outputs, from the IFAs 51 and 52, a first reception beat signal and a second reception beat signal that are two reception beat signals having phases different from each other by 90 degrees. In the following description, the first reception beat signal and the second reception beat signal are also referred to as quadrature reception beat signals.
The baseband circuit 18 converts the quadrature reception beat signals output from the high frequency circuit 17 into baseband signals having digital values. The baseband circuit 18 includes Base Band Amplifiers (BBAs) 61 and 62, Band Pass Filters (BPFs) 71 and 72, Analog to Digital Converters (ADCs) 81 and 82, and Finite Impulse Response (FIR) filters 91 and 92.
The BBAs 61 and 62 amplify the quadrature reception beat signals output from the high frequency circuit 17 to desired voltage strength. The BPFs 71 and 72 limit bands of the signals amplified by the BBAs 61 and 62. The ADCs 81 and 82 convert analog signals output from the BPFs 71 and 72 into digital signals. The FIR filters 91 and 92 limit the bands of the signals output from the ADCs 81 and 82. The baseband circuit 18 outputs V1 and VQ that represent the quadrature reception beat signals having been processed by the BBAs 61 and 62, the BPFs 71 and 72, the ADCs 81 and 82, and the FIR filters 91 and 92.
The MCU 19 includes a Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) processing unit 31 and an interference wave suppression device 36. When an interference wave that is a radio wave other than the reflected wave is received together with the reflected wave, the interference wave suppression device 36 separates a noise signal derived from the interference wave from the reception signal and suppresses the noise signal. The interference wave is a radio wave that is frequency-modulated in a mode different from that of the transmission wave emitted by the radar apparatus 100, the radio wave being emitted from a radar of another vehicle.
The interference wave pseudo signal source 32 generates a pseudo signal of the interference wave based on the first reception beat signal and the second reception beat signal in the case where the reflected wave and the interference wave are simultaneously received. The interference wave pseudo signal source 32 includes an instantaneous phase detector 20, an instantaneous frequency detector 21, and an interference wave pseudo signal generator 22.
The instantaneous phase detector 20 detects an instantaneous phase of the noise signal derived from the interference wave, based on the quadrature reception beat signals. The instantaneous frequency detector 21 detects an instantaneous frequency of the noise signal derived from the interference wave, based on the detected instantaneous phase. The instantaneous phase detector 20 and the instantaneous frequency detector 21 convert the quadrature reception beat signals into data representing a time and frequency characteristic of the noise signal. In the following description, the time and frequency characteristic is referred to as a time-frequency characteristic. The interference wave pseudo signal generator 22 generates the pseudo signal of the interference wave based on the data representing the time-frequency characteristic of the noise signal. The interference wave pseudo signal generator 22 outputs VW that represents the pseudo signal of the interference wave.
The first quadrature MIX 33 performs frequency conversion on each of the first reception beat signal and the second reception beat signal based on the pseudo signal of the interference wave, and suppresses a time variation component of the noise signal. The first quadrature MIX 33 separates the noise signal derived from the interference wave from the quadrature reception beat signals by suppressing the time variation component of the noise signal. The first quadrature MIX 33 includes MIXers (MIXs) 231, 232, 233, and 234, a phase shifter 24, and adders 251 and 252. The phase shifter 24 changes a phase of VW, by 90 degrees to output VC_Q that represents a pseudo signal having a phase different from that of VC_I by 90 degrees. Through the separation of the noise signal in the first quadrature MIX 33, the interference wave suppression device 36 suppresses only the noise signal derived from the interference wave.
The DC component suppressor 34 detects an unnecessary DC component generated in the first quadrature MIX 33, and suppresses the detected DC component. The DC component suppressor 34 includes DC detectors 261 and 262. and adders 271 and 272.
In the first quadrature MIX 33, the reception beat signals are multiplied by the pseudo signals of the interference wave. The second quadrature MIX 35 performs frequency conversion on each of the first reception beat signal and the second reception beat signal based on the pseudo signals, and removes the pseudo signals by which the first reception beat signal and the second reception beat signal are multiplied in the first quadrature MIX 33. The second quadrature MIX 35 includes MIXs 281, 282, 283, and 284, a phase shifter 29, and adders 301, and 302. The phase shifter 29 changes a phase of VC_I by 90 degrees to output VC_Q. that represents a pseudo signal having a phase different from that of VC_I by 90 degrees. The interference wave suppression device 36 outputs the quadrature reception beat signals from which the pseudo signals of the interference wave have been removed by the second quadrature MIX 35.
The FFT processing unit 31 performs fast Fourier transform on the quadrature reception beat signals output from the interference wave suppression device 36. The FFT processing unit 31 executes radar signal processing in accordance with the fast Fourier transform to calculate a distance to the target, a relative velocity of the target, an azimuth angle of the target, and the like. The distance to the target is the distance between the vehicle and the target. The relative velocity is the velocity of the target viewed from the vehicle. The azimuth angle is the angle representing the azimuth of the target with reference to the vehicle.
A hardware configuration of the MCU 19 will now be described.
The processor 52 is a Central Processing Unit (CPU). The processor 52 may be an arithmetic unit, a microprocessor, a microcomputer, or a Digital Signal Processor (DSP). The memory 53 is, for example, a Random Access Memory (RAM), a Read Only Memory (ROM), a flash memory, an Erasable Programmable Read Only Memory (EPROM), an Electrically Erasable Programmable Read Only Memory (EEPROM; registered trademark), or the like.
The memory 53 stores a program for operation as a signal processing unit including the FFT processing unit 31 and the interference wave suppression device 36. The function of the signal processing unit can be implemented by the processor 52 reading and executing the program.
An input unit 51 is a circuit that receives an input signal to the MCU 19 from the outside of the MCU 19. The quadrature reception beat signals output from the baseband circuit 18 and the reference signal REF output from the reference signal source 14 are input to the input unit 51. An output unit 54 is a circuit that outputs a signal generated by the MCU 19 to the outside of the MCU 19. The output unit 54 outputs results of calculating the distance to the target, the relative velocity of the target, the azimuth angle of the target, and the like in the FFT processing unit 31.
Although the configuration illustrated in
The modulated signal generated by the radar apparatus 100 will now be described.
Furthermore, an interval indicated by hatching in
The reflected wave and interference wave received by the radar apparatus 100 will next be described. In the following description, a reflected wave from a target is referred to as a desired wave. Additionally, the desired wave received by the reception antenna 1 is referred to as a received desired wave, and the interference wave received by the reception antenna 1 is referred to as a received interference wave.
The received interference wave is a radio wave transmitted from another vehicle. All of the modulation cycle, the modulation bandwidth, and the modulation slope of the received interference wave are different from the modulation cycle, the modulation bandwidth, and the modulation slope of the transmission wave, respectively. Note that, although
Description will next be given of the quadrature reception beat signals generated in a case where the desired wave and the interference wave are simultaneously received. When the desired wave and the interference wave are simultaneously received, the high frequency circuit 17 and the baseband circuit 18 generate quadrature reception beat signals based on the received desired wave and the received interference wave.
In a case where the difference between the frequency of the local signal that is a basis of the transmission wave and the frequency of the interference wave matches the frequency in the IF band, the noise signal derived from the received interference wave is superimposed on the reception beat signal derived from the received desired wave. The SNR of the reception beat signal derived from the received desired wave decreases owing to the superimposition of the noise signal. In this case, the detection performance of the radar apparatus 100 deteriorates.
The frequency of the received desired wave and the frequency of the received interference wave are the same at about 20 μs. At about 20 μs, the frequency of the reception beat signal derived from the received interference wave is down-converted to the frequency in the IF band in the radar apparatus 100. As a result, the reception beat signal derived from the received interference wave is superimposed on the reception beat signal derived from the received desired wave, which results in a decrease in the SNR of the reception beat signal derived from the received desired wave.
VI and VQ represent the first reception beat signal and the second reception beat signal output from the baseband circuit 18, that is, the quadrature reception beat signals.
As can be seen in
Specific operation of the interference wave suppression device 36 will next be described. In a case where the reception antenna 1 simultaneously receives one type of desired wave and one type of interference wave, VI and VQ that represent the reception beat signals are respectively expressed as the following formulas (1) and (2).
ωIR represents an angular frequency of the reception beat signal down-converted to the frequency in the IF band and derived from the received interference wave. That is, raj is an angular frequency of the noise signal. ωB represents an angular frequency of the reception beat signal down-converted to the frequency in the IF band and derived from the received desired wave. In formulas (1) and (2), the first term represents the noise signal, and the second term represents the reception beat signal derived from the received desired wave. In the BPFs 71 and 72 of the baseband circuit 18, since the amplitude of the noise signal is limited by the frequency, the frequency of the noise signal varies with time. Thus, in formulas (1) and (2), the amplitude of the noise signal is represented by A(t) that is a time function. B represents the amplitude of the reception beat signal derived from the received desired wave.
Specific operation of the interference wave pseudo signal source 32 will now be described. The interference wave pseudo signal source 32 generates the pseudo signal of the interference wave by converting the noise signal into data representing the time-frequency characteristic and performing linear approximation of the data representing the time-frequency characteristic. VC_I representing the pseudo signal output from the interference wave pseudo signal source 32 is expressed as the following formula (3). VC_Q representing the pseudo signal obtained by changing the phase of VC_I by 90 degrees is expressed as the following formula (4).
C represents the amplitude of the pseudo signal of the interference wave, and can be freely determined. fC(τ) represents the frequency characteristic of the noise signal. τ is a variable representing time. fC(τ) is obtained by linear approximation of the instantaneous frequency fC detected by the instantaneous phase detector 20 and the instantaneous frequency detector 21. The following formula (5) is a linear approximation equation of the instantaneous frequency fC.
In formulas (3) and (4), fC(τ) is replaced with the linear approximation equation of the instantaneous frequency fC and integrated. φC represents an initial phase.
Operation of the first quadrature MIX 33 will next be described. In formula (1), VI is expressed as the following formula (6) by integrating each of the first term representing the component of the noise signal and the second term representing the reception beat signal derived from the received desired wave. In formula (2), VQ is expressed as the following formula (7) by integrating each of the first term representing the component of the noise signal and the second term representing the reception beat signal derived from the received desired wave. θIR(t) represents a time-phase characteristic of the noise signal. θB(t) represents a time-phase characteristic of the reception beat signal derived from the received desired wave.
From formulas (3) and (4), θC(t) representing the time-phase characteristic of the pseudo signal of the interference wave is expressed as the following formula (8) From formulas (3), (4), and (8), VC_I and VC_Q, representing the pseudo signals of the interference waves are respectively expressed as the following formulas (9) and (10).
V′I representing the output of MIX 231 is expressed as the following formula (11) using formulas (6) and (9).
V″Q representing the output of MIX 233 is expressed as the following formula (12) using formulas (7) and (10).
V″I representing the output of MIX 234 is expressed as the following formula (13) using formulas (6) and (10).
V′Q representing the output of MIX 232 is expressed as the following formula (14) using formulas (7) and (9).
The output of the adder 251, that is, V″′I representing an output voltage of the first quadrature MIX 33 is expressed as the following formula (15) using formulas (11) and (12).
The output of the adder 252, that is, V″′Q representing the output voltage of the first quadrature MIX 33 is expressed as the following formula (16) using formulas (13) and (14).
Here, in the interference wave pseudo signal source 32, in a case where αC=αIR and βC=βIR hold for αC and βC shown in formulas (3) and (4), θC(t) shown in formula (8) is expressed as the following formula (17).
V″′I shown in formula (15) is expressed as the following formula (18) using formula (17).
V″′Q shown in formula (16) is expressed as the following formula (19) using formula (17).
According to formulas (18) and (19), in the first quadrature MIX 33, the time variation component of θIR that is the component of the noise signal derived from the interference wave can be suppressed. However, the DC component remains in the first term of formula (18) and the first term of formula (19). The DC component is an error factor in the multiplication in the second quadrature MIX 35, and thus needs to be removed. Furthermore, the pseudo signal of the interference wave is superimposed on the reception beat signal derived from the received desired wave represented by each of the second term of formula (18) and the second term of formula (19). Thus, the pseudo signal superimposed on the reception beat signal derived from the received desired wave also needs to be removed.
Specific operation of the DC component suppressor 34 will next be described. The DC component suppressor 34 removes the DC components by detecting the DC components at the DC detectors 261 and 262 and by subtracting the DC components from V″′1 and V″′Q at the adders 271 and 272. The DC detectors 261 and 262 detect the DC components by, for example, a moving average method. The reception beat signal derived from the received desired wave represented by each of the second term of formula (18) and the second term of formula (19) is subjected to frequency modulation based on the pseudo signal of the interference wave. Thus, by applying low-pass filter processing using the moving average, the DC component suppressor 34 can remove the second term of formula (18) and extract only the first term of formula (18), and can remove the second term of formula (19) and extract only the first term of formula (19).
Using a moving average function as MA, the output of the adder 271, that is, V″″I representing the output voltage of the DC component suppressor 34 is expressed as the following formula (20).
The output of the adder 272, that is, V″″Q representing the output voltage of the DC component suppressor 34 is expressed as the following formula (21).
ΔVDCERR_I and ΔVDCERR_Q represent error components not suppressed by the DC component suppressor 34.
Operation of the second quadrature MIX 35 will next be described. The second quadrature MIX 35 removes the pseudo signal superimposed on the reception beat signal derived from the received desired wave from each of the second term of formula (20) and the second term of formula (21).
V′I2 representing the output of MIX 281 is expressed as the following formula (22) using formulas (9) and (20).
V″Q2 representing the output of MIX 283 is expressed as the following formula (23) using formulas (10) and (21).
V″I2 representing the output of MIX 284 is expressed as the following formula (24) using formulas (10) and (20).
V′Q2 representing the output of MIX 282 is expressed as the following formula (25) using formulas (9) and (21).
The output of the adder 301, that is, VOI representing the output voltage of the second quadrature MIX 35 is expressed as the following formula (26) using formulas (22) and (23).
The output of the adder 302, that is, VOQ representing the output voltage of the second quadrature MIX 35 is expressed as the following formula (27) using formulas (24) and (25).
In each of formulas (26) and (27), the first term represents the reception beat signal derived from the received desired wave. In each of formulas (26) and (27), the second term and the third term represent error components of the noise signal derived from the interference wave. The interference wave suppression device 36 can reduce the noise signal derived from the interference wave as a suppression rate of the DC component in the DC component suppressor 34 is higher. Thus, the radar apparatus 100 can obtain, by using the interference wave suppression device 36, the reception beat signal in which the reception beat signal derived from the received desired wave is a main component and the noise signal derived from the interference wave is suppressed.
The interference wave suppression device 36 outputs VOI and VOQ. The FFT processing unit 31 performs, based on VOI and VOQ, arithmetic processing for obtaining radar information such as the distance to the target, the relative velocity of the target, and the azimuth angle indicating the azimuth of the target.
As can be seen in
According to the first embodiment, even when the difference between the frequency of the local signal and the frequency of the received interference wave matches the frequency in the IF band of the radar apparatus 100, the radar apparatus 100 can suppress only the noise signal superimposed on the reception beat signal derived from the received desired wave by using the interference wave suppression device 36. The radar apparatus 100 can prevent a decrease in the SNR of the reception beat signal derived from the received desired wave by suppressing the noise signal derived from the interference wave. Accordingly, the radar apparatus 100 has an effect capable of stably detecting the target with high accuracy.
The configurations described in the above embodiment are an example of the contents of the present disclosure. The configurations of the above embodiment may be combined with another known technique. Some of the configurations of the above embodiment may be omitted or changed without departing from the gist of the present disclosure.
1 reception antenna; 2 transmission antenna; 3 LNA; 41, 42, 231, 232, 233, 234, 281, 282, 283, 284 MIX; 51, 52 IFA; 61, 62 BBA; 71, 72 BPF; 81, 82 ADC; 91, 92 FIR filter; 10 VCO; 11 chirp signal generator; 12 PLL; 13 LF; 14 reference signal source; 15 PA; 16, 24, 29 phase shifter; 17 high frequency circuit; 18 baseband circuit; 19 MCU; 20 instantaneous phase detector; 21 instantaneous frequency detector; 22 interference wave pseudo signal generator; 251, 252, 271, 272, 301, 302 adder; 261, 262 DC detector; 31 FFT processing unit; 32 interference wave pseudo signal source; 33 first quadrature MIX; 34 DC component suppressor; 35 second quadrature MIX; 36 interference wave suppression device; 37 local unit; 50 processing circuitry; 51 input unit; 52 processor; 53 memory; 54 output unit; 100 radar apparatus.
Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind |
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PCT/JP2021/023374 | 6/21/2021 | WO |