KR20180060341A - Radar Apparatus and Antenna Apparatus therefor - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to a radar device and an antenna device therefor. The radar device includes three transmission antennas offset in a vertical direction; and four reception antennas having the same position in a vertical direction. In a medium long-range detection mode, at least one of the three transmission antennas simultaneously transmits a transmission signal, and the four reception antennas receive a reception signal. In a short-range detection mode, two vertically offset ones of the three transmission antennas are used to transmit a time-shared or code-shared transmission signal, and the four reception antennas receive a reception signal. As such, the present invention is capable of precisely calculating at least one among vertical and horizontal information of a subject in the medium long-range and short-range detection modes.

Description

≪ Desc / Clms Page number 1 > Radar Apparatus and Antenna Apparatus Therefor

An embodiment of the present invention relates to a radar apparatus and an antenna apparatus therefor. And more particularly, to a radar apparatus including a multi-input multi-output (MIMO) antenna apparatus.

A radar device mounted on a vehicle or the like must have a high-resolution angular resolution. For example, in the case of a vehicle radar for prevention and prevention of a frontal collision, when an in-path cut-in and a cut-out of a vehicle in a next adjacent lane are performed, It can judge the lifting situation. In other words, through the high-resolution angle resolution capability, it is possible to reduce the probability of detecting the target at the time of cut-in and cut-out, and to assure the safety of the driver by predicting the collision situation.

In addition, the vehicle radar has a mid / long range detection function for detecting an object at a relatively narrow angular range using one antenna assembly, and a near / far range detection function for detecting a near object at a relatively wide angle range. Short Range detection.

In addition, a conventional radar apparatus is configured with a structure in which a plurality of receiving antennas are arranged in order to obtain a high resolution of angular resolution. That is, the conventional radar apparatus uses a structure in which a plurality of receiving antenna channels are arranged to increase the angular resolution.

In the conventional radar apparatus having a structure in which a plurality of receiving antennas are arranged in this manner, the size of the antenna is increased structurally, and a large number of elements related thereto are required in the transmitting and receiving unit (i.e., the RF circuit unit) There is a problem.

However, at present, when mounting a radar device on a vehicle, a part where a radar device can be mounted is limited by various structures such as an ultrasonic sensor in a bumper, a license plate, a fog lamp, and a support structure, It is inevitable.

Recently, multiple input multiple output (MIMO) radars have been developed for miniaturization of vehicle radar.

The MIMO radar has been recently studied because it has the effect of expanding the aperture of the reception antenna by appropriately arranging the intervals of the transmission antennas, thereby achieving the same performance while reducing the number of RF chips.

MIMO radar, which is developed for existing vehicles, has an effective aperture expansion effect through the arrangement of two transmission channels and a plurality of reception channels. This structure is proposed for a long-range radar or a medium-range radar in a vehicle radar.

However, the radar for the vehicle must detect not only the medium / long range but also the wide area near the sensor. To this end, an additional sensor for detecting the near range must be installed, which increases cost and complexity.

Therefore, it is necessary to integrate the medium / long-range radar and the near-field radar in the vehicle radar. In order to integrate the medium / long-range radar and the near-field radar, the transmission antennas are different and the reception antennas are shared. / Long range radar, the performance such as resolution is deteriorated, and the performance of the detection range in the near-field radar is deteriorated, so that the performance of each is not maximized.

Accordingly, it is required to develop a radar device capable of detecting both the long / medium range and the short range at the same time and capable of reducing the size of the radar device while maintaining a high resolution of the angular resolution. However, to be.

In view of the above, it is an object of the present invention to provide a radar device capable of maximizing near and far performance as well as mid / long distance performance through efficient arrangement of a plurality of transmission antennas and a plurality of reception antennas.

It is another object of the present invention to provide an antenna device capable of multiple input multiple receive (MIMO) with a plurality of transmit antennas and a plurality of receive antennas, and a radar device including the same.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a transmission antenna that includes a transmission antenna portion including three transmission antennas extending in a first direction perpendicular to the paper surface and having different front end positions and four transmission antennas extending in the first direction, By optimizing the combination of the transmission antenna and the reception antenna used in the long-distance sensing mode and the short-distance sensing mode by using the radar device including the antenna portion including the reception antenna portion including the reception antenna, And to obtain accurate vertical information and horizontal information of the radar device.

It is a further object of the present invention to provide a method and apparatus for transmitting a transmission signal simultaneously from at least one transmission antenna among the three transmission antennas in a long distance sensing mode and to receive a reception signal at the four reception antennas, Divisionally or code-division-multiplexed transmission signals are transmitted using two selected transmission antennas among the three transmission antennas, and reception signals are received by the four reception antennas, and in the long-distance sensing mode and the short- The present invention provides a radar device capable of calculating at least one of vertical information and horizontal information of a target object based on a received signal received from a plurality of receiving antennas.

As a result, a vehicle radar device capable of precisely measuring the horizontal information (width, etc.) and vertical information (height, etc.) of the object in both the medium and long distance sensing modes and the near sensing mode is provided with a simple antenna configuration and small size .

It is a further object of the present invention to use the above structure to avoid interference with other radar devices by differentiating the shapes of the frequency band and the signal waveform of the transmission signal in the near- And to provide a radar device capable of improving measurement resolution of horizontal / vertical information of an object in both a long distance and a short distance.

According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided a transmission antenna including: a transmission antenna unit including three transmission antennas extending in a first direction perpendicular to a ground plane and having different front end positions; And a receiving antenna unit including four receiving antennas having the same front end positions, and a transmitting unit configured to transmit the transmitting signal through at least one transmitting antenna selected from the transmitting antenna units, And a processing unit for processing the received reflected signal to acquire information about the object by transmitting the reflected signal to the receiving antenna unit and receiving the reflected signal reflected by the object through all of the four receiving antennas included in the receiving antenna unit, Thereby providing a radar device.

According to another embodiment of the present invention, there is provided an antenna device for use in a radar device, comprising: a first transmission antenna extending in a first direction perpendicular to the paper surface, the first transmission antenna having a first front end position; A second transmission antenna spaced apart from the first transmission antenna by a first transmission separation distance in a second direction perpendicular to the first direction and a second transmission antenna spaced apart from the second transmission antenna at a third front end position lower than the second front end position, A transmission antenna unit including a third transmission antenna spaced apart from the first transmission antenna by a second transmission separation distance in a second direction; A first receiving antenna extending in the first direction and having the same height or tip position in a first direction and spaced apart from a third transmitting antenna by a separation distance; and a second receiving antenna spaced apart from the first receiving antenna in the second direction by a first receiving spacing distance A third reception antenna spaced apart from the second reception antenna by a second reception separation distance in the second direction and a third reception antenna spaced apart from the third reception antenna by a third reception separation distance in the second direction, 4 receiving antenna including a receiving antenna.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, as will be described below, a transmission antenna unit including three transmission antennas extending in a first direction perpendicular to the paper and having different front end positions, and a transmission antenna unit extending in the first direction A radar apparatus including an antenna unit including a receiving antenna unit including four receiving antennas having the same front end position is used, and a combination of a transmitting antenna and a receiving antenna used in the long-distance sensing mode and the short- , Accurate vertical information and horizontal information of the target can be obtained at both the middle and long distances.

More specifically, in the long-distance sensing mode, a transmission signal is simultaneously transmitted from at least one transmission antenna among three transmission antennas, and a reception signal is received from four reception antennas, In the near-field sensing mode, a time-divisionally or code-divided transmission signal is transmitted using two selected transmission antennas among the three transmission antennas, a reception signal is received by the four reception antennas, Mode, it is possible to calculate at least one of the vertical information and the horizontal information of the object based on the reception signal received from the four reception antennas.

As a result, according to the present invention, it is possible to precisely measure horizontal information (width, etc.) and vertical information (height, etc.) of a target object in both the long distance sensing mode and the short- .

FIG. 1 shows an example of a general radar device having multiple antennas.
2 is a schematic block diagram of a radar apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 3 illustrates an example of the arrangement of three transmit antennas and four receive antennas included in the antenna unit included in the radar apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 4A is an equivalent state diagram of a transmitting / receiving antenna in a middle / long distance sensing mode of a radar device according to the present invention. FIG. 4A shows a first embodiment using all three transmission antennas, FIG. And shows a second embodiment.
FIG. 5 illustrates a signal transmission / reception method in a short distance sensing mode of a radar device according to the present invention. FIG. 5A is a signal timing diagram, and FIG. 5B is an equivalent state diagram of a transmission / reception antenna.
6 is a flowchart of a signal processing method of a radar device according to an embodiment of the present invention.
7 shows the difference between the signal waveform and the frequency band in the long-distance detection mode and the short-distance detection mode in the radar device according to the embodiment of the present invention.

Hereinafter, some embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to exemplary drawings. It should be noted that, in adding reference numerals to the constituent elements of the drawings, the same constituent elements are denoted by the same reference symbols as possible even if they are shown in different drawings. In the following description of the present invention, a detailed description of known functions and configurations incorporated herein will be omitted when it may make the subject matter of the present invention rather unclear.

In describing the components of the present invention, terms such as first, second, A, B, (a), and (b) may be used. These terms are intended to distinguish the constituent elements from other constituent elements, and the terms do not limit the nature, order or order of the constituent elements. When a component is described as being "connected", "coupled", or "connected" to another component, the component may be directly connected to or connected to the other component, It should be understood that an element may be "connected," "coupled," or "connected."

FIG. 1 shows an example of a general radar device having multiple antennas.

The radar apparatus as shown in FIG. 1A has an antenna structure in which two transmission antennas TX0 and TX1 are arranged in the same direction on the upper side and four reception antennas RX0 to RX3 are arranged in the same direction on the lower side.

At the signal transmission time point, one transmission antenna is selected by the first switching unit SW1 and the transmission signal is transmitted.

A reception signal reflected from the object is received at one reception antenna switched by the second switching unit SW2.

The signal processing unit DSP amplifies the received reflection signal and then compares the received reflection signal with a transmission signal to measure a phase change, a magnitude change, a frequency deviation, and the like, thereby determining a distance to an object, Can be measured.

In Fig. 1A, each antenna is constituted by one array antenna.

1B shows an example of a multi-antenna radar apparatus according to another embodiment, wherein one transmission antenna TX0, a plurality of reception antennas RX0 to RX2, and one transmission / reception antenna RX3 / TX1 are arranged And each antenna extends in the same direction.

In this state, the transmitting antenna TX0 and one transmitting antenna of the transmitting / receiving antenna RX3 / TX1 are selected by the first switching unit SW1 to transmit the transmitting signal at the time of signal transmission.

The received signal reflected from the object is received by one receiving antenna selected by the second switching unit SW2 of the plurality of receiving antennas RX0 to RX2 and one transmitting and receiving antenna RX3 / TX1.

The signal processing unit DSP amplifies the received reflection signal and then compares the received reflection signal with a transmission signal to measure a phase change, a magnitude change, a frequency deviation, and the like, thereby determining a distance to an object, Can be measured.

Although the radar having the antenna structure as shown in Fig. 1 can detect the medium / long range and the near range, there is a disadvantage that it is difficult to have sufficient resolution or angular resolution in both of the two types of detection.

Also, in the antenna structure shown in FIG. 1A, a plurality of transmission antennas extend in the same direction, and a plurality of reception antennas extend in the same direction. In the case of FIG. 1B, all the transmission and reception antennas extend in the same direction.

Therefore, in such an antenna structure, the horizontal direction information of the object can be detected relatively accurately, but the vertical direction information is difficult to accurately measure.

1, at least one of the reception antennas RX0 to RX3 receives a reflection signal. Since each reception antenna has different arrangement characteristics in the horizontal direction with respect to the transmission antenna TX0 or TX1, The horizontal direction information can be measured relatively accurately.

However, each receiving antenna has the same arrangement characteristic in the vertical direction with respect to the transmitting antenna TX0 or TX1, so that there is no difference in the receiving signal received by each receiving antenna, and as a result, it is difficult to measure the vertical direction information of the object will be.

Therefore, in an embodiment of the present invention, a plurality of transmission antennas are constituted by two transmission antenna groups each extending in a first direction and a second direction opposite to each other in the vertical direction, and similarly, And two receiving antenna groups each extending in two directions, thereby improving the vertical direction information detection performance of the object.

In addition, one or more transmission antennas for transmitting signals in the above-described antenna structure are appropriately selected, and a part of the signals received from the plurality of reception antennas are selected and subjected to signal processing. In both of the middle / long- And to improve the measurement precision of information and vertical direction information.

2 is a block diagram of a radar apparatus 100 according to an embodiment of the present invention.

2, a RADAR apparatus 100 according to an embodiment of the present invention includes an antenna unit 110 including a plurality of transmission antennas and a plurality of reception antennas, an antenna unit 110, A transmitting and receiving unit 120 for transmitting a transmission signal and receiving a reception signal through the antenna 130 and a processing unit 130 for processing vertical and horizontal direction information of the object by processing the received signal. Such a radar device is also referred to as a radar sensor.

The antenna unit 110 includes a transmission antenna unit including three transmission antennas extending in a first direction which is one of vertical directions perpendicular to the paper surface and a reception antenna unit including four reception antennas extending in the same direction .

Particularly, the transmission antenna according to the present invention includes three transmission antennas extending in a first direction perpendicular to the ground, and having different front end positions, and the reception antenna unit extends in the same first direction as the transmission antenna, And four receive antennas having the same number of antennas.

More specifically, the transmission antenna section includes: a first transmission antenna extending in a first direction perpendicular to the ground plane, the first transmission antenna having a second front end position lower than the first front end position and extending from a first transmission antenna in a first direction And a third transmission antenna having a third front end position lower than the second front end position and spaced apart from the second transmission antenna by a second distance in the second direction, . ≪ / RTI >

The three transmit antennas may be composed of one or more array antennas extending in a predetermined length, and are arranged such that the positions of the front ends of the respective transmission antennas, more specifically, the positions of the front ends of the respective transmission antennas in the vertical direction are different from each other.

The receiving antenna unit includes four receiving antennas that extend in a first direction perpendicular to the paper surface and have the same fourth tip position and are spaced apart from each other by a predetermined distance in the second direction.

The common fourth tip position of the four receive antennas may be the same as the second tip position of the second transmit antenna disposed in the center among the three transmit antennas.

The spacing between the three transmit antennas and the spacing between the four receive antennas may also be arranged to have a constant relationship. The detailed configuration of the antenna unit will be described in more detail with reference to FIG. 3 below.

The transmission / reception unit 120 switches to at least one of a plurality of transmission antennas included in the antenna unit 110 having the structure described below with reference to FIG. 3, and transmits a transmission signal through a switched transmission antenna A transmission unit that transmits a transmission signal through a multi-transmission channel allocated to a plurality of transmission antennas; a transmission unit that switches to one of the plurality of reception antennas and transmits the transmission signal, which is transmitted through the switched reception antenna, And a reception unit for receiving a reception signal through a multiple reception channel allocated to a plurality of reception antennas.

The transmission unit included in the transmission / reception unit 120 includes an oscillation unit that generates a transmission signal for a transmission channel allocated to a switched transmission antenna or a multi-transmission channel allocated to a plurality of transmission antennas. The oscillation unit may include, for example, a voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO) and an oscillator.

Meanwhile, the transmitting unit included in the transmitting and receiving unit according to the present embodiment uses two transmitting antennas in the near-field sensing mode. And a function of transmitting a transmission signal divided in time division or code division manner during one sensing period or sensing cycle.

The receiver included in the transmission / reception unit 120 may be a low-noise amplifier that low-noise amplifies the received signal received through one receive channel allocated to a switched receive antenna or received through a receive channel allocated to a plurality of transmit antennas A low noise amplifier (LNA), a mixer for mixing the low-noise amplified received signal, an amplifier for amplifying the mixed received signal, and a receiver for digitally converting the amplified received signal, And an ADC (Analog Digital Converter).

Referring to FIG. 2, a RADAR apparatus 100 according to an embodiment of the present invention includes a processing unit 130 for performing control of a transmission signal and signal processing using received data, 130) efficiently distributes the signal processing that requires a large amount of calculation to the first processing unit and the second processing unit, thereby reducing the cost and reducing the hardware size at the same time.

The first processing unit included in the processing unit 130 is a pre-processor for the second processing unit, and acquires transmission data and reception data to generate transmission signals in the oscillation unit based on the acquired transmission data Synchronizes the transmission data and the reception data, and frequency-converts the transmission data and the reception data.

The second processor is a post-processor that performs a substantial process using the processing result of the first processor. The second processor is configured to perform a CFAR (Constant False Alarm Rate) operation, a tracking Tracking operation, Target Selection operation, etc., and extract angular information, velocity information, and distance information with respect to the target.

The first processing unit may perform frequency conversion after data obtained by buffering the obtained transmission data and the obtained reception data with a unit sample size that can be processed per period. The frequency conversion performed by the first processing unit may be Fourier transform such as Fast Fourier Transform (FFT).

The second processing unit may perform a second Fourier transform on the first Fourier transformed signal generated by the first processing unit, and the second Fourier transform may be a Discrete Fourier transform (DFT) Transform, hereinafter referred to as "DFT"). Also, among the DFTs, it may be a chi-discrete Fourier transform (Chirp-DFT).

The second processing unit obtains the frequency values corresponding to the second Fourier transform length (K) through the second Fourier transform such as Chirp-DFT, An object can be detected by calculating a bit frequency having a large power and acquiring speed information and distance information of the object based on the calculated bit frequency.

Particularly, the processing unit 130 according to the present embodiment processes the reception signals received from the four reception antennas in the long-distance sensing mode and the short-range sensing mode in the same manner as described above, And performs a function of calculating horizontal information and vertical information.

The antenna unit 110 included in the radar apparatus according to the present invention has a structure as shown in FIG. 3. The transmitting and receiving unit 120 and the processing unit 130 are disposed in the vertical direction Information and horizontal direction information, it is necessary to implement a certain signal transmission / reception method and an information acquisition method using it, which will be described in detail with reference to FIG. 4 and FIG.

In addition, the radar apparatus 100 according to an embodiment of the present invention may further include a virtual receiving antenna forming unit 140 for controlling a plurality of virtual receiving antennas to be formed in the short distance sensing mode, Will be described in more detail below.

FIG. 3 illustrates an example of the arrangement of three transmit antennas and four receive antennas included in the antenna unit included in the radar apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

3, the antenna unit 110 included in the radar apparatus 100 according to an embodiment of the present invention includes three antennas 110a, 110b, 110c, A transmitting antenna unit including an antenna and a receiving antenna unit including four receiving antennas extending in the first direction and having the same tip positions.

More specifically, the transmission antenna section has a first transmission antenna TX1 extending in a first direction perpendicular to the ground and having a first front end position P1 and a second front end position P2 lower than the first front end position (TX2) spaced from the first transmission antenna by a first transmission separation distance (TD1) in a second direction (horizontal direction) perpendicular to the first direction and a second transmission antenna And a third transmission antenna TX3 having a front end position P3 and spaced apart from the second transmission antenna by a second transmission separation distance TD2 in a second direction.

In the present specification, the first direction is described with reference to the upper direction, that is, the vertical direction, of the direction perpendicular to the paper surface, but is not limited thereto.

In this case, the first distal end position P1 is the closest to the ground and the lowest, and the second distal end position P2 is the lowest. In other words, the first direction may be the downward direction, i.e., And the third distal end position P3 will be determined to be higher than the second distal end position P2.

Meanwhile, the three transmission antennas may be composed of one or more array antennas extending in a predetermined length, and the extension lengths L of the respective transmission antennas may be the same.

The receiving antenna unit includes four receiving antennas (not shown) extending in a first direction perpendicular to the paper surface and having a fourth distal end position P4 that is the same as each other in the vertical direction, .

More specifically, the four receiving antennas constituting the receiving antenna section extend in the vertical direction, and have the same height or a front end position in the vertical direction. The first receiving antenna, which is spaced apart from the third transmitting antenna TX3 by the separation distance DD, A second reception antenna RX2 spaced apart from the first reception antenna RX1 in the horizontal direction by a first reception separation distance RD1 and a second reception antenna RX2 spaced apart from the second reception antenna RX2 in the horizontal direction A third reception antenna RX3 spaced apart from the third reception antenna RX3 by a second reception separation distance RD2 in a direction (second direction) and a third reception separation distance RD3 And a fourth reception antenna RX4 spaced apart from the fourth reception antenna RX4.

Meanwhile, the extension length L of the reception antenna may be the same as the extension length of the transmission antenna.

In the present embodiment, each of the transmit antenna and the receive antenna may be an array antenna in which a plurality of transmit / receive elements are serially connected by a transmission line, but the present invention is not limited thereto.

Each of the antennas used in the present invention is extended so as to have a predetermined direction, and the extending direction of the antennas is set such that the antenna is connected to the feed ports PP1, PP2, and PP3 connected to the chip 310 including the signal processing unit It means the direction of extension.

The first transmission antenna TX1 and the third transmission antenna TX3 may be formed of a total of n array antennas arranged in parallel with the same first and third feed ports PP1 and PP3, But is not limited thereto.

The second transmission antenna TX2 is constituted by a total of m array antennas arranged between the first transmission antenna and the third transmission antenna and arranged in parallel with the second feed port PP2, But is not limited thereto.

However, the number m of the array antennas of the second transmission antenna TX2 may be larger than the number n of array antennas of the first transmission antenna TX1 or the third transmission antenna TX3.

In this manner, the number of array antennas of the first transmission antenna TX1 and the third transmission antenna TX3 disposed on both sides is set to n, and the number m of array antennas of the second transmission antenna TX2 arranged in the middle is set to be larger than n , 4 and 5, it is possible to precisely calculate not only the horizontal information of the long distance object but also the vertical information and the horizontal information of the near object.

Each of the array antennas constituting the transmission antenna and the reception antenna is constituted by a plurality of elements or patches connected by a transmission line and the direction extending from the feed port connected to the chip 310 including the signal processing unit as a starting point is .

That is, the two array antennas included in the first transmission antenna TX1 extend from the feed port PP1 in the first direction, which is the upper direction of the vertical direction.

Meanwhile, the extension length L of each antenna means the total length of the array antenna, and the three transmission antennas and the four reception antennas all have the same extension length L, but are not limited thereto.

In this manner, the first transmission antenna TX1 and the third transmission antenna TX3, which are configured with a relatively small number of array antennas, are disposed on both sides, and the second transmission antenna TX2 composed of a relatively large number of array antennas is disposed at the center, By adopting the signal transmission and reception method as described, accurate object detection is possible in both the long-distance detection mode and the near-field detection mode.

On the other hand, the three transmission antennas are offset by a certain distance in the vertical direction.

More specifically, the second front end position P2 of the second transmission antenna TX2 is arranged to be lower than the first front end position P1 of the first transmission antenna TX1 by a first vertical offset distance OS1, The third distal end position P3 is arranged to be lower than the second distal end position P2 of the second transmission antenna TX2 by a second vertical offset distance OS2 in the vertical direction.

That is, among the three transmission antennas of the same extension length, the third transmission antenna TX3 is disposed closest to the chip 310 in the vertical direction, and the first transmission antenna TX1 is disposed the farthest from the chip 310 in the vertical direction.

In this case, the first vertical offset distance OS1 and the second vertical offset distance OS2 may be? / 2, which is half of the transmission signal wavelength?, But the present invention is not limited thereto and may be an integral multiple of? / 2.

The first vertical offset distance OS1 and the second vertical offset distance OS2 are set in order to calculate vertical direction angle information of the object. By setting the size to be? / 2 or an integer multiple thereof, the grating A grating lobe may not be generated or a grating lobe may be formed away from the position of the main beam or the main lobe.

That is, since two transmission channels can be used in the vertical direction, if the first vertical offset distance OS1 and the second vertical offset distance OS2 are arranged to be equal to or larger than? / 2, adverse effects may occur.

However, since the position of the grating lobe is closer to the main lobe as the first vertical offset distance OS1 and the second vertical offset distance OS2 are increased, the first vertical offset distance OS1 and the second vertical offset distance OS2 lambda / 2 or more so as not to cause a grating lobe or to form a grating lobe away from the position of the main beam or the main lobe.

In addition, the first vertical offset distance OS1 and the second vertical offset distance OS2 may be set differently.

As will be described below, in the near-field sensing mode, a divided transmission signal time-divisionally or code-divided is transmitted to the vertically offset first transmission antenna TX1 and the third transmission antenna TX3, and the reception signals The vertical information of the near object can be precisely calculated.

At this time, by setting the first vertical offset distance OS1 and the second vertical offset distance OS2 to lambda / 2, which is half of the transmission signal wavelength lambda, accuracy of measurement of the vertical information (height, etc.) Which will be described in more detail below.

By arranging three transmission antennas so as to be offset by a certain distance in the vertical direction and employing a specific signal transmission / reception method in the long-distance sensing mode and the short-range sensing mode as described below, not only horizontal information of a long- The vertical information and the horizontal information of the near object can be precisely calculated, which will be described in more detail with reference to FIGS. 4 and 5 below.

Meanwhile, a predetermined distance may be formed between the transmission antenna and the reception antennas in a second direction (horizontal direction). By appropriately selecting the separation distance, the horizontal and vertical directions of the object in the long- Information (width, etc.) can be precisely measured.

More specifically, the horizontal distance between the first transmission antenna TX1 and the third transmission antenna TX3 may be set to 4.5 times the wavelength of the transmission signal, that is, 4.5 [lambda]. That is, the overall aperture of the transmitting antenna may be set to 4.5 [lambda].

3, a first transmission separation distance TD1 between a first transmission antenna TX1 and a second transmission antenna TX2 and a second transmission separation distance TD2 between a second transmission antenna TX2 and a third transmission antenna TX3, (Second direction) can be set to 4.5, but the present invention is not limited thereto.

It is preferable that the size of the entire aperture of the transmission antenna, which is the sum of the first transmission separation distance TD1 and the second transmission separation distance TD2, is larger than the size of the entire aperture of the reception antenna.

3, the first reception separation distance RD1 between the first reception antenna RX1 and the second reception antenna RX2 is 1 lambda, and the second reception antennas RX2 and RX2 are separated from each other by 1 lambda. The third reception separation distance RD3, which is the distance between the third reception antenna RX3 and the fourth reception antenna RX4, can be set to?, While the second reception separation distance RD2, which is the distance between the third reception antenna RX3 and the third reception antenna RX3, But is not limited thereto.

However, according to the present invention, it is preferable that the antennas are arranged in a so-called non-uniform linear array structure in which the intervals between adjacent reception antennas among the four reception antennas RX1 to RX4 are not the same.

Generally, when a receiving antenna is composed of a plurality of receiving antenna channels and a uniform linear array having a constant receiving antenna channel spacing is used, if the distance between the receiving antenna channels exceeds 0.5 ?, the main lobe Unnecessary grating lobes are generated at the same size. In order to avoid the occurrence of grating lobes, if the interval between the receiving antenna channels is 0.5? Or less, the reception beam width becomes too wide, .

Therefore, in the embodiment of the present invention, the four receiving antennas RX1 to RX4 are arranged in a non-uniform manner, and a virtual receiving antenna or a virtual array .

In this case, the grating lobe can be reduced while increasing the receiving antenna aperture with a limited number of reception channels. For example, as shown in FIG. 3, the first horizontal interval and the third horizontal interval are set to 1 lambda, and the second horizontal interval is 2 [lambda], it is possible to maximize the effect of the aforementioned boiling interval arrangement.

In order to form a virtual receive antenna in the near-field sensing mode as described below, the total openings of the transmit antennas (i.e., the sum of the first transmit separation distance TD1 and the second transmission separation distance TD2) (I.e., the first reception separation distance RD1 between the first reception antenna RX1 and the second reception antenna RX2 and the second reception separation distance RD2 between the second reception antenna RX2 and the third reception antenna RX3) Which is the sum of the reception separation distance RD2 and the third reception separation distance RD3 which is the distance between the third reception antenna RX3 and the fourth reception antenna RX4) Will be described in more detail with reference to FIG.

 As described above, an antenna unit including a transmitting antenna unit including three transmitting antennas having different front end positions and a receiving antenna unit including four receiving antennas extending in the first direction and having the same front end positions By optimizing the combination of the transmitting antenna and the receiving antenna used in the long distance sensing mode and the short distance sensing mode, it is possible to acquire accurate vertical information and horizontal information of the target in both the long distance and the short distance.

FIG. 4A is an equivalent state diagram of a transmitting / receiving antenna in a middle / long distance sensing mode of a radar device according to the present invention. FIG. 4A shows a first embodiment using all three transmission antennas, FIG. And shows a second embodiment.

First, in order to measure horizontal information of a target object at a medium distance by a radar according to the present invention, a first embodiment using three transmission antennas will be described.

In the transmission mode of the long-distance detection mode, the transmission signal is simultaneously transmitted from the first transmission antenna TX1, the second transmission antenna TX2, and the third transmission antenna TX3. In the reception mode in which the signal reflected from the object is received, That is, the horizontal information of the long-distance object is obtained using the information received from both the first receiving antenna RX1 to the fourth receiving antenna RX4.

4A shows an equivalent state diagram of a transmission antenna section in the first embodiment in which signals are transmitted using all three transmission antennas at the same time.

Since the first vertical offset distance OS1 and the second vertical offset distance OS2 are used for acquiring the horizontal information of the object in the medium and long distance sensing mode, the positional difference of the front end of the transmission antenna necessary for acquiring the vertical direction information of the object, And the vertical offset is ignored in Figs. 4A and 4B.

As shown in FIG. 4A, when a transmission signal is transmitted using three transmission antennas at the same time, a total of eight array antennas are used. As a result, AP1, which is an aperture of a transmission antenna, This becomes sharp, and the gain can be increased to improve long-range sensing performance.

However, depending on the transmission beam width or gain, instead of using all three transmit antennas as in the second embodiment, only the second transmit antenna TX2 arranged in the center may be used.

4B is an equivalent state diagram of a transmission antenna unit in the second embodiment for transmitting a signal using only the second transmission antenna TX2.

In the second embodiment, in the transmission step of the long-distance sensing mode, transmission signals are transmitted only at the second transmission antenna TX2, and in the reception mode in which signals reflected at the object are received, all of the four reception antennas, To the fourth reception antenna RX4, the horizontal information of the medium-and-long-distance object is obtained.

In the case of this second embodiment, since the aperture AP2 of the transmission antenna is smaller than the transmission antenna aperture AP in the first embodiment, the gain is somewhat reduced but the transmission beam width can be larger.

Therefore, by selectively using the first embodiment that uses all three transmit antennas and the second embodiment that uses only the second transmit antenna disposed in the center depending on the gain or transmit beam width required in the long-distance detection mode, The horizontal information of the object can be appropriately obtained.

For example, in order to acquire precise horizontal information of a long distance object such as Adaptive Cruise Control (ACC), it is necessary to improve the detection performance by using the method of the first embodiment, and to prevent collision avoidance that requires detection of a wide- System (Collision Prevention System) or the like, the second embodiment may be applied.

On the other hand, a configuration for acquiring horizontal information or vertical information of a target object by processing the received signals received from the four receiving antennas will be described in detail with reference to FIG. 6 below.

FIG. 5 illustrates a signal transmission / reception method in a short distance sensing mode of a radar device according to the present invention. FIG. 5A is a signal timing diagram, and FIG. 5B is an equivalent state diagram of a transmission / reception antenna.

According to the present invention, in order to precisely obtain the vertical direction information and the horizontal direction information of the object in the short-range sensing mode, a time-divisionally or code-divided transmission signal is transmitted using two selected transmission antennas among three transmission antennas, Lt; RTI ID = 0.0 > receive antennas. ≪ / RTI >

More specifically, in the short-range detection mode, transmission signals are time-divisionally or code-division-transmitted from the first transmission antenna TX1 and the third transmission antenna TX3 which are offset in the vertical direction, and are controlled to receive the reception signals from the four reception antennas FIG. 5A is a timing diagram of the transmission / reception signal in this case, and shows a case of a time division method among time division and code division.

As shown in FIG. 5A, the first transmission antenna TX1 is turned on to transmit a transmission signal during the first T / 2 period, and the third transmission antenna TX3 is turned ON during the following T / And emits a transmission signal. Of course, in this case the second transmit antenna TX2 is not used.

Meanwhile, the four reception antennas RX1 to RX4 all receive signals during the same sensing period, and the processing unit 130 analyzes the reception signals received through the four channels, and calculates the horizontal information (width, etc.) And vertical information (vertical angle, etc.).

FIG. 5B shows an equivalent state diagram of the transmitting and receiving antenna in the near-field sensing mode as shown in FIG. 5A.

The equivalent state diagram of FIG. 5B shows the arrangement state of reception antennas when two transmission antenna channels to be time-divisionally or code-division-transmitted are fixed to one, and the degree of aperture of the radar device can be confirmed.

5A, it is assumed that the position of the first transmission antenna TX1 is assumed as a reference position, and the horizontal position of the third transmission antenna TX3, which time-divisionally transmits the same signal, is equal to the reference position Position.

That is, the first transmission antenna TX1 and the third transmission antenna TX3 are spaced apart from each other by the entire openings of the transmission antenna in the horizontal direction (i.e., the sum of the first transmission separation distance TD1 and the second transmission separation distance TD2) Therefore, when a signal is transmitted from the first transmission antenna TX1 and then immediately after the signal is transmitted from the third transmission antenna TX3, a reception signal of the reception antenna receiving the reflection signal reflected from the object on the basis of the same reflection signal is spatially horizontally (TD1 + TD2) of the transmission antenna and is received.

Also, when the first transmission antenna TX1 is represented by a solid line, the third transmission antenna TX3 transmitting the same signal in time division can be represented as being shifted by the vertical offset distance OS in the vertical direction. At this time, the vertical offset distance OS may be the sum of the first vertical offset distance OS1 and the second vertical offset distance OS2.

In this case, a receiving antenna virtually existing by a horizontal separation of a transmitting antenna or the like can be expressed as a virtual receiving antenna, in a concept distinguishable from a real receiving antenna.

Referring to FIG. 5B, when the first transmitting antenna TX1 is used as a reference, the receiving end is located at a position separated by a horizontal distance TD1 + TD2 in addition to the first receiving antenna RX1, the second receiving antenna RX2, the third receiving antenna RX3, Four virtual receiving antennas VRX1 to VRX4 are formed.

That is, the first virtual receiving antenna VRX1, the second virtual receiving antenna VRX2, the third virtual receiving antenna VRX3, and the fourth virtual receiving antenna VRX4, which are a total of four virtual receiving antennas, are located at positions separated by TD1 + TD2 from the first receiving antenna RX1 Is generated.

As a result, a total of four channels of the true reception antenna and four channels of the virtual reception antenna are formed at the receiving end.

That is, first to fourth virtual receiving antennas VRX1 to VRX4 are formed at positions separated by TD1 + TD2 from the respective intrinsic reception antennas RX1 to RX4, resulting in using a total of eight reception channels Become like.

At this time, the horizontal distance between the first reception antenna RX1 disposed at the entire opening of the reception end, i.e., one end of the reception end and the fourth virtual reception antenna VRX4 disposed at the other end, corresponds to TD1 + TD2, which is the total opening of the transmission antenna, RD1 + RD2 + RD3, which is the sum of RD1 + RD2 + RD3.

Therefore, by using the radar device of the present invention, the entire aperture of the receiving end is expanded, so that the resolution or resolution for the horizontal direction information can be improved in the near field sensing mode.

2. Description of the Related Art Generally, a radar apparatus performs an object detection function for detecting a distance to an object, a velocity and an azimuth of the object using a reception signal received through a plurality of reception antennas. At this time, (I.e., to increase the resolution), it is desirable to have an antenna structure of "an extended aperture structure"

That is, the distance between one end and the other end of the reception antenna is an aperture. Making such a reception antenna aperture large to have an expanded aperture performance is one of the important performance factors of the radar device.

By thus having the antenna structure of the extended opening structure, the position where the grating lobe is generated at the receiving end becomes closer to the center position where the main beam is located. therefore,

The radar apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention is configured such that a position where a grating lobe is generated is moved away from a center position where a main beam is located, that is, a grating lobe is suppressed Quot; virtual aperture structure "or" virtual antenna structure "

1, the radar apparatus 100 according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention includes a virtual receiving antenna forming unit 140 for controlling a plurality of virtual receiving antennas to be formed, ).

As described above, the virtual reception antenna formation unit 140 performs signal processing for generating a signal having a predetermined phase difference that can be determined according to the reception antenna interval based on the signal received by the actual reception antenna .

That is, the virtual receiving antenna forming unit 140 forms a virtual receiving antenna (virtual receiving antenna), as if a signal was received via a virtual receiving antenna virtually disposed at a position where no actual receiving antenna is disposed, (I.e., a signal generated by the signal generator).

In this specification, "that a virtual receive antenna is formed" may have the same meaning as "a received signal that is not actually received is made ". In this sense, the arrangement structure (interval, number, etc.) of the virtual reception antennas may have the same meaning as the structure (interval, number, and the like)

The virtual receiving antenna forming unit 140 may have a receiving end antenna structure in which a plurality of receiving antennas are actually present at the receiving end and a plurality of virtual receiving antennas are virtually present.

As described above, the antenna structure in which a plurality of virtual receiving antennas are virtually present at the receiving end may be referred to as "antenna structure having a virtual opening structure ".

In order to obtain the accurate horizontal direction information in the short distance sensing mode, the signal transmitting and receiving unit 120 of the radar apparatus according to the present invention performs time division in the short distance sensing mode between the first transmission antenna TX1 and the third transmission antenna TX3 Or the code division, and receives the reflection signal reflected from the object through all of the reception antennas included in the reception antenna unit, and the processing unit 130 receives the reflection signal based on the reflection signal received from all of the reception antennas , The horizontal direction information of the nearby object is obtained.

As described above, the radar apparatus according to the present invention has the antenna arrangement structure as shown in FIG. 3, and has the signal transmitting / receiving configuration as shown in FIG. 5A in the near distance sensing mode, Can be measured precisely.

In order to maximize the effect of expanding the aperture by forming the virtual antenna as described above, in this embodiment, the total opening of the transmitting antenna, TD1 + TD2, is equal to or larger than the size of the entire opening of the receiving antenna, RD1 + RD2 + RD3 .

5B, when TD1 + TD2, which is the total opening of the transmitting antenna, is smaller than the size of RD1 + RD2 + RD3, which is the total opening of the receiving antenna, some of the virtual receiving antennas Overlapping with the reception antenna, not only the aperture expansion effect is reduced, but also the accuracy of the signal processing can be reduced.

Meanwhile, if TD1 + TD2, which is the total opening of the transmitting antenna, is equal to the total size of RD1 + RD2 + RD3 of the receiving antenna, the first virtual receiving antenna VRX1 overlaps with the fourth receiving antenna RX4 in the horizontal direction, RD2 + RD3, which is the total opening of the receiving antenna, becomes a total of eight receiving antenna channels as shown in FIG. 5B, So that the aperture opening effect and the signal processing accuracy can be improved.

5B, the first transmission antenna TX1 and the third transmission antenna TX3, which transmit signals in a time division manner, are arranged so that their front ends are perpendicular to the vertical offset distance OS (the first vertical offset distance OS1 and the second vertical offset distance OS2 , Each virtual receiving antenna VRXi indicated by a dotted line has an effect of being spaced apart from the intrinsic receiving antenna RXi in the vertical direction by a vertical offset distance OS.

 Therefore, when a reflection signal is received in each of a plurality of reception channels spaced apart from each other by a vertical offset distance OS, a certain phase difference or amplitude difference occurs between the reception signals received in the respective reception channels.

Therefore, by comparing the phase difference or size difference of the signals for each receiving channel, vertical direction information such as the height of the object can be obtained.

That is, the reflected signal reflected from the object on the basis of the same transmission signal can be received by two reception channels spaced by the vertical offset distance OS vertically, and the reception signal can be received by the two reception channels due to the vertical separation of the reception channel The phase or intensity can vary.

That is, there is a difference in the traveling path (progress distance, etc.) of the signal received by the first receiving channel and the second receiving channel depending on the height of the object, and the phase or size of the signal received by each receiving channel It is different. In this case, the first reception channel may be at least one of the first reception antenna to the fourth reception antenna, and the second reception channel may have a first virtual reception antenna to a fourth virtual reception antenna ≪ / RTI >

Accordingly, in the processing unit 130 of the radar device, vertical information such as the height of the object can be acquired by analyzing the phase or size difference of signals received in both receiving channels.

For example, when the phase difference or the size difference between signals received by two reception channels is small, it is determined that the height of the object is about the center of the two reception channels, and the signal intensity of the first reception channel If the signal intensity of the second reception channel is lower than the signal strength of the second reception channel and the phase difference is greater than a predetermined level, it can be determined that the height of the object is high.

As described above, by using the radar apparatus of the present invention, it is possible to acquire the vertical direction information of the near object by using the signal transmitting and receiving system having the antenna arrangement as shown in FIG. 3 and FIG. 4 and FIG. 5, There is an advantage that the horizontal direction information of the object can be measured with high resolution in both the long-distance detection mode and the near-field mode.

Therefore, since the vertical and horizontal information of the medium-range and the near object can be precisely measured without any physical change of the radar apparatus or an additional apparatus, the utility as the radar for the vehicle can be maximized.

An example of a vertical / horizontal information obtaining method of a target object provided by the radar apparatus 100 according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described below.

6 is a flowchart illustrating a signal processing method provided by a radar device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart illustrating a signal processing process after the reception signal is completed according to the signal transmission / reception method described with reference to FIGS. 4 and 5. In step S600, (S602), the frequency conversion (S604) is performed.

Subsequently, a CFAR (Constant False Alarm Rate) operation (S606) is performed based on the frequency-converted received data, and vertical / horizontal information, speed information, and distance information for the target are extracted (S608). The frequency conversion in step S606 may use Fourier transform such as Fast Fourier Transform (FFT).

7 shows the difference between the signal waveform and the frequency band in the long-distance detection mode and the short-distance detection mode in the radar device according to the embodiment of the present invention.

As shown in FIGS. 4 and 5, the horizontal information and / or the vertical information of the object can be precisely measured in both the long-distance detection mode and the near-field detection mode using the radar apparatus according to the present invention.

In addition to the above-described configuration, in the radar device according to the present invention, detection performance can be improved by using different frequency bands and signal waveforms in the long-distance detection mode and the near-field detection mode, respectively.

Generally, the radar device is improved in the resolution or signal detection performance of the radar so that the frequency band of the transmission signal is wide, the output is large, and the number of signal waveforms output during one sensing period is increased

However, in the case of a vehicle radar, there is a limitation on a usable frequency band to avoid interference with other vehicles or other electromagnetic waves in the long distance detection mode. In short-range detection mode, it is possible to use a wide frequency band because it is less likely to interfere with other radar devices. However, in the long distance detection mode, the available frequency band is limited in order to avoid interference.

Therefore, in the radar apparatus according to the present invention, the first transmission signal in the long distance sensing mode as shown in FIG. 4 uses a first frequency band, and a relatively small first number of signal waveforms Wherein the second transmission signal in the short range sensing mode uses a second frequency band that is greater than the first frequency band and includes a second number of signal waveforms greater than the first number during one sensing period do.

In addition, the output of the transmission signal in the long-distance sensing mode can be made larger than the output of the transmission signal in the short-distance sensing mode.

That is, as shown in FIG. 7, a so-called slow chirp transmission signal having a large waveform width is formed in a first frequency band of about 76 to 77 GHz in the long-distance sensing mode.

On the other hand, in the short-range sensing mode, a so-called Fast Chirp transmission signal is formed in a second frequency band having a range of about 76 to 81 GHz, which is larger than the first frequency band.

Accordingly, the first number N1 of the signal waveform Chipr included in the detection cycle T or the cycle in the long-distance detection mode is the second number N2 of the signal waveforms included in the one detection cycle in the near- (N1).

On the other hand, some of the first frequency band and the second frequency band may overlap, or completely different frequency bands.

In general, the fast juxtaposition system that transmits a plurality of signal waveforms to one sensing cycle has a higher detection performance than a larger amount of data, and can achieve a desired resolution with a low output.

Therefore, as in the present invention, in the long-distance detection mode, the output is high, but the required transmission performance can be ensured while avoiding interference with other radar devices and the like, by using the transmission signal of the slow coherent scheme in a small frequency band.

Further, in the near-field sensing mode, the transmission signal of the fast-attenuating method is used in a wider frequency band, so that a necessary resolution can be secured even with a low output.

As described above, the radar apparatus of the present invention has an antenna structure as shown in FIG. 3, and uses the signal transmission / reception method as shown in FIGS. 4 and 5 for obtaining horizontal / vertical direction information of a target object, It is possible to measure the horizontal / vertical information of the object at a high resolution in both the long distance and the short distance while avoiding the interference with other radar devices.

According to the embodiments of the present invention as described above, three transmission antennas vertically offset and four reception antennas having the same position in the vertical direction are included. In the long distance sensing mode, one of the three transmission antennas In the near-field sensing mode, time-division or code-division-multiplexing is performed using two transmit antennas vertically offset from the three transmit antennas, And transmits the divided transmission signals and controls reception of the reception signals at the four reception antennas. The vertical information and the horizontal information of the object based on the reception signals received from the four reception antennas in the long- It is possible to precisely calculate one or more of them.

As a result, according to the present invention, it is possible to precisely measure horizontal information (width, etc.) and vertical information (height, etc.) of a target object in both the long distance sensing mode and the short- There is

While the present invention has been described in connection with what is presently considered to be the most practical and preferred embodiments, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited to the disclosed embodiments. That is, within the scope of the present invention, all of the components may be selectively coupled to one or more of them. In addition, although all of the components may be implemented as one independent hardware, some or all of the components may be selectively combined to perform a part or all of the functions in one or a plurality of hardware. As shown in FIG. The codes and code segments constituting the computer program may be easily deduced by those skilled in the art. Such a computer program can be stored in a computer-readable storage medium, readable and executed by a computer, thereby realizing an embodiment of the present invention. As the storage medium of the computer program, a magnetic recording medium, an optical recording medium, a carrier wave medium, or the like may be included.

It is also to be understood that the terms such as " comprises, "" comprising," or "having ", as used herein, mean that a component can be implanted unless specifically stated to the contrary. But should be construed as including other elements. All terms, including technical and scientific terms, have the same meaning as commonly understood by one of ordinary skill in the art to which this invention belongs, unless otherwise defined. Commonly used terms, such as predefined terms, should be interpreted to be consistent with the contextual meanings of the related art, and are not to be construed as ideal or overly formal, unless expressly defined to the contrary.

The foregoing description is merely illustrative of the technical idea of the present invention, and various changes and modifications may be made by those skilled in the art without departing from the essential characteristics of the present invention. Therefore, the embodiments disclosed in the present invention are intended to illustrate rather than limit the scope of the present invention, and the scope of the technical idea of the present invention is not limited by these embodiments. The scope of protection of the present invention should be construed according to the following claims, and all technical ideas within the scope of equivalents should be construed as falling within the scope of the present invention.

100: radar device 110: antenna part
120: Transmitting / receiving unit 130:
140: virtual antenna forming section
TXi: i th transmission antenna (i = 1, 2, 3)
RXj: jth receiving antenna (j = 1, 2, 3, 4)
VRXj: the jth virtual receiving antenna (j = 1, 2, 3, 4)

Claims (14)

A transmitting antenna unit including three transmitting antennas extending in a first direction perpendicular to the ground and having different front end positions; and a receiving antenna unit including four receiving antennas extending in the first direction, An antenna unit including a part;
The method comprising: transmitting a transmission signal through one or more transmission antennas selected from the transmission antenna units in one of the long-range distance sensing mode and the near-field sensing mode, and transmitting the reflection signal reflected from the target object through all of the four reception antennas included in the reception antenna unit A transceiver for receiving a signal;
A processing unit processing the received reflected signal to obtain information about the object;
The radar device comprising: The method according to claim 1,
Wherein the transmission antenna unit comprises: a first transmission antenna extending in a first direction perpendicular to the paper surface, the first transmission antenna having a second front end position lower than the first front end position and perpendicular to the first direction from the first transmission antenna; A second transmission antenna spaced apart from the first transmission antenna by a first transmission separation distance in a second direction and a third transmission antenna spaced apart from the second transmission antenna by a second transmission separation distance in a second direction, Comprising a transmit antenna,
The receiving antenna unit may include a first receiving antenna extending in the first direction and having the same height or a front end position in the first direction and spaced apart from the third transmitting antenna by a separation distance, A third reception antenna spaced apart from the second reception antenna by a second reception separation distance in a second direction and a third reception separation distance in a second direction from the third reception antenna, And a fourth receiving antenna spaced apart from the first receiving antenna by a predetermined distance. 3. The method of claim 2,
Wherein the first transmission antenna and the third transmission antenna are constituted by a total of n array antennas arranged in parallel with the same first feed port and third feed port, respectively, and between the first transmission antenna and the third transmission antenna Wherein the second transmission antennas are arranged in parallel with the second feed port, and the total of m array antennas is larger than n. The method of claim 3,
A first vertical offset distance OS1 that is a distance between the first front end position and the second front end position in a first direction and a second vertical offset distance OS2 that is a distance in the first direction between the second front end position and the third front end position, And the distance OS2 is larger than 1/2 of the wavelength of the transmission signal. 3. The method of claim 2,
Wherein at least one of the first reception separation distance, the second reception separation distance and the third reception separation distance is different from the rest, so that the four reception antennas have a non-uniform spacing linear array structure. 3. The method of claim 2,
The size of the total aperture of the transmission antenna defined by the sum of the first transmission separation distance and the second transmission separation distance is defined as a sum of the first reception separation distance, the second reception separation distance, and the third reception separation distance Is greater than or equal to the size of the entire aperture of the receiving antenna. The method of claim 3,
In the long distance sensing mode, the transceiver transmits the same transmission signal in all three transmission antennas, transmits a transmission signal only in the second transmission antenna, and receives the reflection signal in all of the four reception antennas, Obtains the horizontal direction information of the long-distance object based on the reflection signals received from the four reception antennas. The method of claim 3,
In the near-field sensing mode, a time-divisionally or code-division-transmitted transmission signal is transmitted using two selected transmission antennas among the three transmission antennas, and a reflection signal is received from the four reception antennas. And obtains horizontal direction information and vertical direction information of the local object based on the reflection signal received from the reception antenna. 9. The method of claim 8,
And a virtual receiving antenna forming unit for forming first to fourth virtual receiving antennas corresponding to the four receiving antennas in the short distance sensing mode. An antenna device for use in a radar device,
A first transmission antenna extending in a first direction perpendicular to the ground plane and having a first front end position and a second transmission antenna having a second front end position lower than the first front end position and extending in a second direction perpendicular to the first direction from the first transmission antenna; And a third transmission antenna spaced apart from the second transmission antenna by a second transmission separation distance in a second direction, the second transmission antenna being spaced apart from the first transmission distance by a first transmission separation distance, ;
A first receiving antenna extending in the first direction and having the same height or tip position in a first direction and spaced apart from a third transmitting antenna by a separation distance; and a second receiving antenna spaced apart from the first receiving antenna in the second direction by a first receiving spacing distance A third reception antenna spaced apart from the second reception antenna by a second reception separation distance in the second direction and a third reception antenna spaced apart from the third reception antenna by a third reception separation distance in the second direction, A receiving antenna unit including four receiving antennas;
And an antenna device for receiving the antenna device. 11. The method of claim 10,
Wherein the first transmission antenna and the third transmission antenna are constituted by a total of n array antennas arranged in parallel with the same first feed port and third feed port, respectively, and between the first transmission antenna and the third transmission antenna Wherein the second transmission antennas are arranged in parallel with the second feed port, and the total of m array antennas is larger than n. 12. The method of claim 11,
A first vertical offset distance OS1 that is a distance between the first front end position and the second front end position in a first direction and a second vertical offset distance OS2 that is a distance in the first direction between the second front end position and the third front end position, And the distance OS2 is larger than 1/2 of the wavelength of the transmission signal. 11. The method of claim 10,
Wherein at least one of the first reception separation distance, the second reception separation distance, and the third reception separation distance is different from the rest, so that the four reception antennas have a non-uniform spacing linear array structure. 11. The method of claim 10,
The size of the total aperture of the transmission antenna defined by the sum of the first transmission separation distance and the second transmission separation distance is defined as a sum of the first reception separation distance, the second reception separation distance, and the third reception separation distance Is equal to or larger than the size of the entire opening of the receiving antenna.

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