US 12,287,391 B2
Method and apparatus for determination of direction of arrival angle
Arie Geert Cornelis Koppelaar, Giessen (NL); Marco Jan Gerrit Bekooij, Empel (NL); Francesco Laghezza, Eindhoven (NL); Feike Guus Jansen, Eindhoven (NL); and Yiting Lu, Delft (NL)
Assigned to NXP B.V., Eindhoven (NL)
Filed by NXP B.V., Eindhoven (NL)
Filed on Aug. 8, 2022, as Appl. No. 17/818,016.
Claims priority of application No. 21192349 (EP), filed on Aug. 20, 2021.
Prior Publication US 2023/0152435 A1, May 18, 2023
Int. Cl. G01S 13/34 (2006.01); G06F 1/03 (2006.01); G06F 17/15 (2006.01)
CPC G01S 13/34 (2013.01) [G06F 1/03 (2013.01); G06F 17/156 (2013.01)] 19 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A frequency-modulated-continuous-wave (FMCW) radar system comprising:
a plurality of antenna elements configured to transmit and receive radar signals; and
a processor configured to:
receive an input dataset, x, indicative of the radar signals received at the plurality of antenna elements, wherein the radar signals have reflected from a plurality of targets;
define a matrix, A, formed of direction-of-arrival-angle vectors, an, comprising one for each one of the plurality of targets, each direction-of-arrival-angle vector representing an expected response at the plurality of antenna elements of the radar signals from the target with a predetermined amplitude and comprising a function of a direction of arrival angle relative to the plurality of antenna elements;
define a signal amplitude vector, s, to represent expected complex amplitudes of each of the plurality of targets as received in the radar signals;
define an objective function based on x, A and s;
search for a set of the direction of arrival angles for each of the plurality of targets by the repeated evaluation of the objective function for a plurality of candidate matrices based on matrix A that each include different direction-of-arrival-angle vectors over a search space, wherein said set of direction of arrival angles are derived from one of the candidate matrices of the plurality of candidate matrices that provides one of a maximum and a minimum evaluation of the objective function over the search space; and
wherein said search space comprises a plurality of discrete points associated with the direction of arrival angle by a function comprising sin(θk), wherein θk represents the direction of arrival angle and wherein the distribution of the direction of arrival angles in the search space is non-uniform.