A radar receiver has plural antenna system processors each for performing coherent integration on the basis of correlation values between a reception signal and a transmission signal using correction amounts for phase variations corresponding to plural Doppler frequencies, plural correlation matrix generators for generating, for each of the plural different Doppler frequencies, correlation matrices which are pieces of phase difference information relating to an arrangement of reception antennas on the basis of sets of outputs of the coherent integration, respectively, an adder for adding together outputs of the plural correlation matrix generators, and an incoming direction estimator for estimating an incoming direction of reflection waves on the basis of outputs of the adder.
1. A radar device comprising:
a radar transmitter that converts a transmission signal into a high-frequency transmission signal and transmits the high-frequency transmission signal from a transmission antenna; and
a radar receiver that estimates an incoming direction of reflection waves which are produced as a result of reflection, by a target, of the high-frequency transmission signal on the basis of the reflection waves using plural reception antennas,
wherein the radar receiver includes:
plural antenna system processors, each of which performs coherent integration on the basis of correlation values between a reception signal and the transmission signal using correction amounts for phase variations corresponding to plural different Doppler frequencies;
plural correlation matrix generators that generate, for each of the plural different Doppler frequencies, correlation matrices which are pieces of phase difference information relating to an arrangement of the plural reception antennas on the basis of sets of outputs of the coherent integration, respectively;
an adder that adds together outputs of the plural correlation matrix generators; and
an incoming direction estimator that estimates the incoming direction of the reflection waves coming from the target on the basis of outputs of the adder.
2. The radar device according to claim 1 ,
wherein each of the plural antenna system processors performs coherent integration of a first integration number and coherent integration of a second integration number on the basis of the correlation values between the reception signal and the transmission signal using the correction amounts for phase variations corresponding to the plural different Doppler frequencies;
wherein the plural correlation matrix generators generate, for each of the plural different Doppler frequencies, the correlation matrices on the basis of an output of the coherent integration of the first integration number and an output of the coherent integration of the second integration number, respectively; and
wherein the adder adds together, for each of the plural different Doppler frequencies, outputs of the plural correlation matrix generators.
3. A radar device comprising:
a radar transmitter that converts a transmission signal into a high-frequency transmission signal and transmits the high-frequency transmission signal from a transmission antenna; and
a radar receiver that estimates an incoming direction of reflection waves which are produced as a result of reflection, by a target, of the high-frequency transmission signal on the basis of the reflection waves using plural reception antennas,
wherein the radar receiver includes:
plural antenna system processors, each of which performs coherent integration on the basis of correlation values between a reception signal and the transmission signal using correction amounts for phase variations corresponding to plural different Doppler frequencies;
plural correlation matrix generators that generate, for each of the plural different Doppler frequencies, correlation matrices which are pieces of phase difference information relating to an arrangement of the plural reception antennas on the basis of plural outputs of the coherent integration;
a peak Doppler frequency detector that detects a Doppler spread in a prescribed frequency range including a Doppler frequency which maximizes a coherent integration gain on the basis of an output of one of the plural correlation matrix generators;
an output selector that selects a correlation matrix corresponding to the Doppler frequency which maximizes the coherent integration gain among the generated correlation matrices according to the Doppler spread; and
an incoming direction estimator that estimates the incoming direction of the reflection waves coming from the target on the basis of an output of the output selector.
4. The radar device according to claim 1 , further comprising:
a peak Doppler frequency detector that selects a Doppler frequency which maximizes a coherent integration gain on the basis of an output of one of the plural correlation matrix generators; and
an output selector that selects a correlation matrix corresponding to the Doppler frequency detected by the peak Doppler frequency detector from the outputs of the adder.
5. The radar device according to claim 1 , further comprising:
a peak Doppler frequency detector that selects a Doppler frequency which maximizes a coherent integration gain on the basis of an output of one of the plural correlation matrix generators,
wherein the adder adds together correlation matrices corresponding to the Doppler frequency detected by the peak Doppler frequency detector among sets of outputs of the plural correlation matrix generators.
6. The radar device according to claim 1 , wherein each of the plural antenna system processors includes:
a reception antenna that receives the reflection waves coming from the target;
an RF receiver that converts a signal of the received reflection waves into a baseband reception signal;
an A/D converter that converts the converted reception signal into digital data;
a correlation value calculator that calculates a correlation value between the digital data of the converted reception signal and the transmission signal every transmission cycle of the high-frequency transmission signal;
a coherent integrator that performs coherent integration on the basis of a first prescribed number of calculated correlation values; and
an FFT processor that performs coherent integration on the basis of a second prescribed number of outputs of the coherent integration using correction amounts for phase variations corresponding to the plural different Doppler frequencies.
7. The radar device according to claim 6 , wherein each of the plural antenna system processors further includes:
a coefficients generator that generates, for each of the plural different Doppler frequencies, coefficients for coherent integration of a third prescribed number of outputs of the FFT processor;
a coefficients multiplier that multiplies the outputs of the FFT processor by the coefficients generated for each of the plural different Doppler frequencies; and
a buffer that performs coherent integration on the basis of a third prescribed number of outputs of the coefficients multiplier.
8. The radar device according to claim 3 , further comprising:
a Doppler components adder that adds together correlation matrices in a prescribed frequency range including the Doppler frequency which maximizes the coherent integration rain on the basis of outputs of the output selector.
9. The radar device according to claim 3 , wherein the peak Doppler frequency detector selects a Doppler frequency on the basis of diagonal elements of correlation matrices generated for the plural respective Doppler frequencies by one of the plural correlation matrix generator.
10. The radar device according to claim 3 , further comprising:
a speed estimator that calculates a relative movement speed of the target on the basis of the Doppler frequency detected by the peak Doppler frequency detector.
11. The radar device according to claim 7 , wherein each of the plural antenna system processors further includes a second buffer which performs coherent integration on the basis of a fourth prescribed number of outputs of the FFT processor; and
wherein the radar receiver further includes a third correlation matrix generator that generates, for each of the plural different Doppler frequencies, a correlation matrix which is phase difference information relating to an arrangement of the plural reception antennas on the basis of outputs of the coherent integration of the second buffers.
12. A radar device comprising:
a radar transmitter that converts a transmission signal into a high-frequency transmission signal and transmits the high-frequency transmission signal from a transmission antenna; and
a radar receiver that estimates a distance to a target on the basis of reflection waves which are produced as a result of reflection, by the target, of the high-frequency transmission signal,
wherein the radar receiver includes:
an antenna system processor that performs coherent integration on the basis of correlation values between a reception signal and the transmission signal using correction amounts for phase variations corresponding to plural different Doppler frequencies;
plural non-coherent integrators that perform non-coherent integration for each of the plural different Doppler frequencies on the basis of sets of outputs of the coherent integration, respectively;
an adder that adds together outputs of the plural non-coherent integrators; and
a distance estimator that estimates the distance to the target on the basis of outputs of the adder.
13. The radar device according to claim 12 ,
wherein the antenna system processor performs coherent integration of a first integration number and coherent integration of a second integration number on the basis of the correlation values between the reception signal and the transmission signal using the correction amounts for phase variations corresponding to plural different Doppler frequencies;
wherein plural non-coherent integrators perform non-coherent integration for each of the plural different Doppler frequencies on the basis of outputs of the coherent integration of the first integration number and outputs of the coherent integration of the second integration number, respectively; and
wherein the adder adds together, for each of the plural different Doppler frequencies, outputs of the plural non-coherent integrators.
14. A radar device comprising:
a radar transmitter that converts a transmission signal into a high-frequency transmission signal and transmits the high-frequency transmission signal from a transmission antenna; and
a radar receiver that estimates a distance to a target on the basis of reflection waves which are produced as a result of reflection, by the target, of the high-frequency transmission signal,
wherein the radar receiver includes:
an antenna system processor that performs coherent integration on the basis of correlation values between a reception signal and the transmission signal using correction amounts for phase variations corresponding to plural different Doppler frequencies;
plural non-coherent integrators that perform non-coherent integration for each of the plural different Doppler frequencies on the basis of sets of outputs of the coherent integration, respectively;
a peak Doppler frequency/Doppler spread detector that detects a Doppler spread in a prescribed frequency range including a Doppler frequency which maximizes a coherent integration gain on the basis of an output of one of the plural non-coherent integrators;
an output selector that selects a non-coherent integration output corresponding to the Doppler frequency which maximizes the coherent integration gain among generated non-coherent integration outputs according to the Doppler spread; and
a distance estimator that estimates a distance to the target on the basis of an output of the output selector.