Enhanced Interference Detection Method in Automotive FMCW Radar Systems

In the coming years, automotive radar sensors will play a crucial role in the autonomous driving tasks. A future challenge to be addressed is represented by the potential radar to radar interference. Frequency Modulated Continuous Wave (FMCW) radar to radar interference can cause severe dynamic range penalties in the radar receiver which lead to a reduction of maximum detectable range as well as sensitivity losses. State of the art FMCW to FMCW radar interference detection techniques are prone to miss weak interference. Though weak, this interference can still decrease sensitivity. A high pass filter can be applied before the first stage of range processing to reduce the contribution of the close and strong reflectors in the interference detection process. By applying this filter, the return from close targets can be suppressed to a certain extent, preferably below the noise floor, such that only the interference can be effectively considered in the interference detection process. This allows the detection of interference with a lower power than the return from the close targets.