Radar apparatus with quiet switch calibration and associated methods

• Main Authors: Jones Debra A, Graves, Jr. James C, Abbasi Aamir A
• Format: Patent
• Language: English
• Published: 20.06.2017
• Subjects: ANALOGOUS ARRANGEMENTS USING OTHER WAVES; DETERMINING DISTANCE OR VELOCITY BY USE OF RADIO WAVES; LOCATING OR PRESENCE-DETECTING BY USE OF THE REFLECTION ORRERADIATION OF RADIO WAVES; MEASURING; PHYSICS; RADIO DIRECTION-FINDING; RADIO NAVIGATION; TESTING

A radar apparatus measures at least one characteristic of at least one object. A sweep generator generates a sweep signal to modulate an oscillator to generate a varying frequency signal. A transmitter transmits the varying frequency signal as a radar signal. A receiver receives a reflected radar signal to produce a received signal using the varying frequency signal. A compensation signal memory holds a previously stored compensation signal. A compensation circuit compensates the received signal based on the previously stored compensation signal to produce a compensated received signal. A quiet switch quiets the reflected radar signal and determines the previously stored compensation signal, during calibration of the radar apparatus, and the received signal is written into the compensation signal memory. Switched loads can be used to quiet the reflected radar signal. For field calibration, the compensated signal can be adjusted but not necessarily written back into the compensation signal memory.