Multi-frequency automotive radar system

摘要

A Doppler control circuit for a CW or pulse Doppler radar system for monitoring not only the phase shift between echo signals from several targets but also the amplitude difference between several targets and to further tune the radar to a particular target among one or more targets from which echo signals return. The control circuit can be used in state of the art CW or pulse Doppler type radar systems. In a further system, a continuously generated radar signal is repeatedly transmitted at different frequencies in time division fashion to define a succession of transmit and receive frames. The receive frames are divided into a plurality of time interval windows with selected windows being used to detect received signals at the different frequencies. The remaining windows can be used for subsystems of the radar system. The rate of phase shift of received signals at a reference frequency is used to determine closing rate, (positive or negative) while the phase shift difference between received signals at two frequencies is used to determine range and target direction. In yet a further system, a special circuit is provided for conditioning selected portions of the Doppler frequency spectrum to attenuate or de-emphasize portions of the echo signal corresponding to selected targets in the radar system environment, such as rain or stationary wayside objects, in order to give such echo signals less weight in determining roadway hazards.