Adaptive Frequency-Domain Block Correlators for Range Processing in Digital Automotive Radars

Abstract

The use of digital sequences in automotive radars provides better support for multiple antennas in imaging radar applications. However, a challenge in such digital radars is the higher complexity in the receiver processing chain, starting from the bank of correlators used to estimate the range of targets. State-of-the-art correlators are implemented using using fast Fourier transforms (FFTs), which have log linear complexity in the FFT length used in correlating the digital sequence with the received sequence. This Results in high complexity due to the large sequence lengths needed to achieve high sensing range and fine velocity resolution. We propose an adaptive block FFT-based correlator processing method that exploits sparsity in the range domain. In comparison to conventional FFT-based correlator processing, the proposed method provides a significant reduction in complexity.