MIMO radar device for the decoupled determination of an elevation angle and an azimuth angle of an object and method for operating a MIMO radar device

A method for operating a MIMO radar device, the MIMO radar device including an antenna array including multiple transmitting antennas whose phase centers are situated spaced apart from one another along a first coordinate direction, and multiple receiving antennas whose phase centers are situated spaced apart from one another along the first coordinate direction, the phase center of at least one of the transmitting antennas being spaced apart from the phase centers of the remaining transmitting antennas by an offset value along a second coordinate direction which is perpendicular to the first coordinate direction, the phase center of at least one of the receiving antennas being spaced apart from the particular phase centers of the remaining receiving antennas by an offset value along the second coordinate direction, and an evaluation unit with the aid of which electromagnetic signals, which are emitted by the transmitting antennas and received by the receiving antennas are evaluated for the decoupled determination of the elevation angle and the azimuth angle of the object, the method comprising:

• emitting electromagnetic signals with the aid of the transmitting antennas;
• receiving electromagnetic signals reflected on the object with the aid of the receiving antennas;
• detecting virtual phase centers of the received reflected electromagnetic signals;
• evaluating the received reflected electromagnetic signals to determine an azimuth angle of the object based at least on electromagnetic phase offsets between a first selection from the detected virtual phase centers;
• and
• evaluating the received reflected electromagnetic signals to determine the elevation angle of the object based at least on electromagnetic phase offsets between a second selection from the detected virtual phase centers, wherein the evaluation unit detects, based on the electromagnetic signals, a virtual phase center of each of:
• i) a first virtual MIMO array formed by a combination of the remaining transmitting antennas and the remaining receiving antenna,
• ii) a second virtual MIMO array formed by a combination of the remaining transmitting antennas and the receiving antennas spaced by the offset value and a combination of the transmitting antennas spaced by the offset value and the remaining receiving antennas, and
• iii) a third virtual MIMO array formed by a combination of the transmitting antennas spaced by the offset value and the receiving antennas spaced by the offset value.

A MIMO radar device for a decoupled determination of an elevation angle and an azimuth angle of an object, comprising:

• an antenna array including multiple transmitting antennas whose phase centers are situated spaced apart from one another along a first coordinate direction, and multiple receiving antennas whose phase centers are situated spaced apart from one another along the first coordinate direction, the phase center of at least one of the transmitting antennas being spaced apart from the phase centers of the remaining transmitting antennas by an offset value along a second coordinate direction which is perpendicular to the first coordinate direction, the phase center of at least one of the receiving antennas being spaced apart from the phase centers of the remaining receiving antennas by an offset value along the second coordinate direction;
• and
• an evaluation unit with the aid of which electromagnetic signals, which are emitted by the transmitting antennas and received by the receiving antennas, are evaluated for the decoupled determination of the elevation angle and the azimuth angle of the object, wherein:
• the evaluation unit determines the azimuth angle on the basis of a first deterministic maximum likelihood (DML) function and a second DML function, and
• the evaluation unit determines the elevation angle on the basis of a third DML function that is different than the first DML function and the second DML function.

A method for operating a MIMO radar device, the MIMO radar device including an antenna array including multiple transmitting antennas whose phase centers are situated spaced apart from one another along a first coordinate direction, and multiple receiving antennas whose phase centers are situated spaced apart from one another along the first coordinate direction, the phase center of at least one of the transmitting antennas being spaced apart from the phase centers of the remaining transmitting antennas by an offset value along a second coordinate direction which is perpendicular to the first coordinate direction, the phase center of at least one of the receiving antennas being spaced apart from the particular phase centers of the remaining receiving antennas by an offset value along the second coordinate direction, and an evaluation unit with the aid of which electromagnetic signals, which are emitted by the transmitting antennas and received by the receiving antennas are evaluated for the decoupled determination of the elevation angle and the azimuth angle of the object, the method comprising:

• emitting electromagnetic signals with the aid of the transmitting antennas;
• receiving electromagnetic signals reflected on the object with the aid of the receiving antennas;
• detecting virtual phase centers of the received reflected electromagnetic signals;
• evaluating the received reflected electromagnetic signals to determine an azimuth angle of the object based at least on electromagnetic phase offsets between a first selection from the detected virtual phase centers;
• and
• evaluating the received reflected electromagnetic signals to determine the elevation angle of the object based at least on electromagnetic phase offsets between a second selection from the detected virtual phase centers, wherein:
• the evaluating includes determining the azimuth angle on the basis of a first deterministic maximum likelihood (DML) function and a second DML function, and
• the evaluating includes determining the elevation angle on the basis of a third DML function that is different than the first DML function and the second DML function.