JP2010008341A - Radar device - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To solve a problem of a conventional radar device for measuring angle by monopulse processing using two receivers wherein, when there are two targets in beam width, signals from two targets are added to each other while holding phase information and received, hence amplitude information of each target is lost, and correct angle measuring value is not acquired. <P>SOLUTION: This radar device includes a plurality of receivers for reflected signals from the targets via respective antennas and analog-to-digital converting them, and an angle measurement processor that uses a plurality of received signals received at optional the same time by respective receivers and a plurality of received signals received by respective receivers simultaneously at a time different from the former time, determines the amplitudes of the targets, the phases of the targets, variation in the phases of the targets between different times in the same receiver, and a space phase determined at the angles of the targets, and measures the angles of the targets based on the space phase. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2010,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a radar apparatus that performs target angle measurement using a plurality of receivers.

  There is a monopulse process as a process used in a conventional radar apparatus that performs angle measurement using a plurality of, for example, two receivers. Monopulse processing has a receiving system in which two antennas are arranged and two receivers corresponding to them are arranged. Using the fact that the sum of the two antenna patterns is the Σ beam, the difference is the Δ beam, and the ratio of the Δ beam and the Σ beam is almost linear with respect to the angle, the target angle can be measured with an accuracy less than the antenna beam width. It is a process to perform. Non-patent document 1 discloses a conventional technique related to monopulse processing.

Samuel M. Sherman, “Monopulse Principles and Techniques,” Artech House, INC, ISBN 0-89006-137-8, 1984.

  However, the monopulse processing has a problem that a large angle measurement error occurs when there are two targets within the antenna beam width. The principle will be briefly described below.

  When there are two targets within the beam width, signals obtained by adding the signals from the two targets while retaining the phase information are received for the Σ beam and Δ beam. Therefore, the amplitude information of each target is lost, and a correct angle measurement value cannot be obtained even if monopulse processing is applied.

  The present invention has been devised to solve the above-described problem, and an object of the present invention is to obtain a radar apparatus that performs angle measurement of a plurality of targets within an antenna beam width using a plurality of receivers.

A radar apparatus according to the present invention includes a plurality of antennas that receive transmission signals reflected by a target,
A plurality of receivers that respectively receive the reflected signals incident on the plurality of antennas and perform analog / digital conversion;
A plurality of reception signals received at the same time at each receiver and a plurality of reception signals received at the same time at a time different from the time, the target amplitude, A target phase, a change amount of the target phase between different times in the same receiver, and a spatial phase determined by an angle with respect to the target antenna are obtained, and an angle measurement for obtaining an angle with respect to the target antenna from the spatial phase. A processing apparatus is provided.

  According to the radar apparatus of the present invention, a plurality of receptions received at arbitrary same times output from a plurality of receivers that receive a reflected signal from a target via respective antennas and perform analog / digital conversion. A signal and a plurality of received signals simultaneously received at a time different from the time are input by an angle measurement processing device, and the angle measurement processing device is configured to input the target amplitude, the target phase, and the same receiver. The amount of change in the target phase between different times and the spatial phase determined by the target angle are obtained, and the target is measured from this spatial phase. It can be determined by quantity.

A preferred embodiment of an angle measurement processing method in a radar apparatus according to the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.
The angle measurement processing method in the radar apparatus of the present invention uses two receivers and received signals at different times, and calculates equations for the phase change amount due to two target amplitudes, phases, spatial phases, and two target Doppler frequencies. By making it and solving it, you can find the angle of 2 targets.

Embodiment 1 FIG.
FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of a radar apparatus according to Embodiment 1 of the present invention. The function of each component will be described with reference to FIG. A signal is generated from the transmitter 1, and the generated signal is transmitted to the space from the antennas 3a and 3b through the transmission / reception switchers 2a and 2b, respectively.

  The reflected signal from the target is received by each of the antennas 3a and 3b. Signals received by the antennas 3a and 3b are output to the receivers 4a and 4b through the transmission / reception switchers 2a and 2b, respectively.

  The received signals input to the receivers 4 a and 4 b are subjected to phase detection by the receivers 4 a and 4 b, subjected to analog / digital conversion (A / D conversion), and output to the angle measurement processing device 5.

The received signal input to the angle measurement processing device 5 is processed as follows.
FIG. 2 shows a block diagram of the processing procedure of the angle measurement processing device 5. The received signals received by the antennas 3a and 3b at a certain time t and input to the angle measurement processing device 5 are defined as x1 _{, t} and x2 _{, t} . Assuming that f ₁ and f ₂ are Doppler frequencies in the targets 1 and 2, x _{1, t} and x _{2, t} are expressed by the following equations (1) and (2).

At time t = 0 Equations (1) and (2) the formula (3), is represented by (4), at different times t = T _s and the time t = 0, equation (1), (2) It is expressed by equations (5) and (6).

Where g _{1 and} g ₂ are the complex amplitudes of targets 1 and 2, 2πf ₁ T _s and 2πf ₂ T _s are the amount of phase change due to the Doppler frequency of targets 1 and 2, and α ₁ and α ₂ are the angles of targets 1 and 2, respectively. These are spatial phases determined by φ _1, φ ₂ , the distance d between the antenna 3 a and the antenna 3 b and the wavelength λ, and are expressed by equations (7) and (8).

Since there are four complex equations (eight real equations) of the equations (3), (4), (5), and (6) for the eight unknowns, the solution of the equation uniquely exists. The solutions of α ₁ and α ₂ are expressed by equations (9) and (10).

Among the solutions of the above equation, the target angles φ _{1 and} φ ₂ can be obtained from α ₁ and α ₂ using equations (11) and (12).

  Thus, by using the first embodiment, it is possible to obtain two target angles in a radar apparatus having two receivers.

Embodiment 2. FIG.
FIG. 3 is a configuration diagram of the radar apparatus according to Embodiment 2 of the present invention. The function of each component will be described with reference to FIG. In the configuration of the second embodiment, Fourier transform devices 6a and 6b and detection devices 7a and 7b are added between the receivers 4a and 4b and the angle measurement processing device 5 in the configuration of the first embodiment shown in FIG. Is. In the following, processing when FFT (Fast Fourier Transform) is used as Fourier transform is shown.

  The reception signals output from the receivers 4a and 4b are output to the Fourier transform devices 6a and 6b, respectively.

FIG. 4 shows processing when FFT is used as Fourier transform. The Fourier transform devices 6a and 6b perform FFT on input signals from the receivers 4a and 4b between time t = 0 and time t = T _s and between time t = T _s and time t = 2T _s , respectively. Process. The results are output to the detection devices 7a and 7b, respectively.

In the detection devices 7a and 7b, the target signal is detected from the input signals from the Fourier transform devices 6a and 6b. The detected amplitude and phase of the target signal are output to the angle measurement calculation processing device 5 as x _1,0 , x _2,0 , x _{1, Ts} , x _2Ts , and the angle measurement calculation processing device 5 performs angle measurement processing. Done.

FIG. 5 shows another processing method in the Fourier transform apparatuses 6a and 6b. Receiver 4a has been A / D converted at a sampling interval T _s, the input signal from 4b, each odd point, and performs an FFT for each even-point, and outputs the detection device 7a, to 7b.

  Thus, in the present embodiment, the Fourier transform apparatuses 6a and 6b that perform the FFT processing are added to the first embodiment. Since the Fourier transform has the effect of improving the signal-to-noise ratio, it has the effect of improving the angle measurement accuracy. In addition, since it has the effect of averaging the amplitude of the signal, it has the effect of improving the angle measurement accuracy as well as improving the signal-to-noise ratio.

Embodiment 3 FIG.
FIG. 6 is a configuration diagram of the radar apparatus according to Embodiment 3 of the present invention. The function of each component will be described with reference to FIG. The configuration of the third embodiment is the same as the configuration diagram of the second embodiment (FIG. 3). In addition, a detection device 9 is newly added to the subsequent stage of the Fourier transform device 6c, and the detection devices 7a and 7b in the configuration diagram (FIG. 3) of the second embodiment are omitted.

  The received signals output from the receivers 4a and 4b are output to the Fourier transform devices 6a and 6b and the beam combining device 8, respectively.

  The beam combining device 8 combines input signals from the receivers 4a and 4b. For example, an input signal from the receiver 4a and an input signal from the receiver 4b are added to synthesize a beam. The synthesized signal is output to the Fourier transform device 6c.

  In the Fourier transform device 6 c, FFT processing is performed on the input signal from the beam synthesis device 8. In the Fourier transform device 6c, the FFT processing is not performed at different times as in the Fourier transform devices 6a and 6b, but the FFT processing is performed on the data for the entire observed time. The data after the FFT processing is output to the detection device 9.

  The detection device 9 performs target detection processing on the input signal from the Fourier transform device 6c. Information such as the Doppler frequency when the target is detected is output to the angle measurement processing device 5.

  The angle measurement processing device 5 uses the information such as the Doppler frequency input from the detection device 9 to extract a target signal component from the signals input from the Fourier transform devices 6a and 6b, and performs angle measurement processing.

  As described above, in the present embodiment, in the configuration diagram of the second embodiment (FIG. 3), the beam synthesizer 8 that synthesizes the signals from the receivers 4a and 4b and the Fourier after the beam synthesizer 8 are combined. A detection device 9 is newly added to the subsequent stage of the conversion device 6c and the Fourier transform device 6c, and the detection devices 7a and 7b in the configuration diagram of the second embodiment (FIG. 3) are omitted.

  The signal combined with the signals received by the antennas 3a and 3b by the beam combiner 8 can improve the signal-to-noise ratio. Further, since the Fourier transform device 6c performs FFT on the observed data for the entire time, the signal-to-noise ratio can be improved, and the detection performance of the detection device 9 is improved.

  The pulse radar device of the present invention can be used for, for example, a device for tracking a target aircraft or an air traffic control radar.

1 is a configuration diagram of a radar apparatus according to Embodiment 1 of the present invention. FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating a processing procedure of the angle measurement processing device in the radar device according to the first embodiment. It is a block diagram of the radar apparatus in Embodiment 2 of this invention. It is processing explanatory drawing at the time of using FFT for a Fourier-transform apparatus. It is process explanatory drawing which shows another processing method of a Fourier-transform apparatus. It is a block diagram of the radar apparatus in Embodiment 3 of this invention.

Explanation of symbols

  1; Transmitter, 2a, 2b; Transmission / reception switch, 3a, 3b; Antenna, 4a, 4b; Receiver, 5; Angle measurement processing device, 6a, 6b, 6c; Fourier transform device, 7a, 7b; Detection device, 8; Beam synthesis device, 9; Detection device.

Claims (6)

A plurality of antennas for incident transmission signals reflected by the target;
A plurality of receivers that respectively receive the reflected signals incident on the plurality of antennas and convert analog signals into digital signals;
A plurality of received signals received at the same time at each receiver;
At a time different from the time, using a plurality of received signals received simultaneously by the receivers,
The amplitude of the target;
The target phase;
Obtaining a spatial phase determined by a change amount of the target phase between different times in the same receiver and an angle of the target with respect to the antenna;
A radar apparatus comprising an angle measurement processing device for obtaining an angle of the target with respect to the antenna from the spatial phase. Between each receiver and the angle measurement processing device,
The radar apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a Fourier transform apparatus that Fourier-transforms a signal from each receiver and outputs the result to an angle measurement processing apparatus.   The radar apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the Fourier transform apparatus performs Fourier transform on the plurality of received signals at different times. The Fourier transform device
A function of performing Fourier transform for each odd number of sample points of the received signal;
The radar apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the radar apparatus has a function of performing Fourier transform on each of even points of the received signal. The detection apparatus which detects a target signal from the output of the said Fourier-transform apparatus, and outputs the value of this target signal to the said angle measurement processing apparatus is provided, The any one of Claims 2-4 characterized by the above-mentioned. Radar device.   A beam synthesizer for synthesizing signals from the receivers, a Fourier transform device for Fourier transforming the signals from the beam synthesizer, and detecting a target signal from the output of the Fourier transform device downstream of the Fourier transform device. The radar apparatus according to claim 3, further comprising a detection device that outputs the detected frequency information to the angle measurement processing device.

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