Abstract
Ramp-sequence based frequency modulated continuous wave (FMCW) radar is effective in detecting the range and velocity of a target. However, because the target detection algorithm is based on a two-step fast Fourier transform (FFT) over several pulse-repetition intervals (PRIs), a significant amount of data must be processed in order to detect the range and velocity of the target. In specific cases, when multiple channels must be supported in order to estimate the angle position of a target, even more hardware resources and memory, as well as longer processing times, are required. In this paper, a field programmable gate array (FPGA) based radar detection algorithm with a parallel and pipelined architecture is implemented in order to support the multi-channel processing of the algorithm, which includes range and Doppler processing, digital beam forming (DBF), and constant false alarm rate (CFAR) detection. In order to effectively support the parallel and pipelined architecture, we propose a data-routing-schemed DBF and fine-grained DBF architecture. The results from implementation of the proposed hardware resources and processing times are also presented. The implemented radar sensor is installed on an experimental vehicle and is demonstrated in the field.DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5755/j01.eee.21.2.7606
Highlights
Frequency-modulated continuous-wave (FMCW) radars have been used in vehicle applications
Prior to fast Fourier transform (FFT) processing, the window is applied in order to suppress the side-lobe, and the windowed signal is transformed using the 2·M-point FFT into the frequency domain within each pulse-repetition intervals (PRIs)
The second term of (1) is the target angle term. This information can be extracted through digital beam forming (DBF), which is an advanced approach for steering receiving phased array antennas in order to estimate the angle
Summary
Frequency-modulated continuous-wave (FMCW) radars have been used in vehicle applications. The range information can be expressed as a frequency spectrum of each beat-signal; the Doppler-frequency appears as phase information over the all ramps in slow time domain In this method, two-step fast Fourier transform (FFT) processing is used to detect the range and velocity. Prior to FFT processing, the window is applied in order to suppress the side-lobe, and the windowed signal is transformed using the 2·M-point FFT into the frequency domain within each PRI In this FFT process, because a negative range beat frequency is not necessary to detect the target range, the FFT point is equal to 2∙M, and the number of range bins is M for each ramp. The design and implementation of an effective parallel and pipelined hardware architecture intended to support a 3D FFT based radar signal processing algorithm is reported.
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