US 11,899,127 B2
Virtual antenna array with distributed aperture
Stephen Crouch, Bozeman, MT (US); and Chunshu Li, San Jose, CA (US)
Assigned to AURORA OPERATIONS, INC., Mountain View, CA (US)
Filed by Aurora Innovation, Inc., Palo Alto, CA (US)
Filed on Dec. 23, 2020, as Appl. No. 17/132,077.
Claims priority of provisional application 63/085,865, filed on Sep. 30, 2020.
Prior Publication US 2022/0099795 A1, Mar. 31, 2022
Int. Cl. G01S 7/35 (2006.01); H01Q 3/36 (2006.01); G01S 13/931 (2020.01); G01S 13/58 (2006.01); G01S 13/00 (2006.01); G01S 13/42 (2006.01); G01S 13/34 (2006.01); G01S 13/87 (2006.01); G01S 7/40 (2006.01)
CPC G01S 7/354 (2013.01) [G01S 13/003 (2013.01); G01S 13/583 (2013.01); G01S 13/931 (2013.01); H01Q 3/36 (2013.01); G01S 7/4026 (2013.01); G01S 13/343 (2013.01); G01S 13/42 (2013.01); G01S 13/426 (2013.01); G01S 13/584 (2013.01); G01S 13/878 (2013.01)] 16 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A radar sensor, comprising:
a plurality of multiple input multiple output (MIMO) radar transceiver devices, each including a plurality of transmitters and a plurality of receivers disposed within a local oscillator domain; and
control logic coupled to the plurality of MIMO radar transceiver devices and configured to synthesize a virtual antenna array with a distributed aperture using the plurality of MIMO radar transceiver devices, the virtual antenna array including a first set of virtual array elements defined by one or more pairs of transmitters and receivers from the same local oscillator domain and a second set of virtual array elements defined by one or more pairs of transmitters and receivers from different local oscillator domains;
wherein each MIMO radar transceiver device comprises an antenna-on-package device including a transmit antenna for each transmitter and a receive antenna for each receiver in the respective MIMO radar transceiver device, wherein the MIMO radar transceiver devices have a same antenna layout for the transmit and receive antennas thereon and are disposed on a common circuit board, wherein the plurality of MIMO radar transceiver devices includes first, second, third and fourth MIMO radar transceiver devices respectively arranged in upper left, upper right, lower right and lower left positions of a two-by-two array, wherein the second and fourth MIMO radar transceiver devices are each mounted on the circuit board in a same rotational orientation relative to one another, and wherein the first and third MIMO radar transceiver devices are each mounted on the circuit board at about a 180 degree rotational orientation relative to the second and fourth MIMO radar transceiver devices.