Method and apparatus for emitting electromagnetic radiation and receiving partial radiation reflected by the objects

A non-transitory machine-readable storage medium on which is stored a computer program for determining an instantaneous performance of a radar system that includes an apparatus for emitting electromagnetic radiation and receiving partial radiation reflected by objects having a frequency-modulated transmit signal, which has at least two signal sequences, that have ramps, each of the ramps succeeding one another in a frequency characteristic, with gaps in between, the at least two signal sequences being interleaved with each other with a predetermined time offset in such a way that in each case a first ramp of each of the at least two signal sequences is output before a second ramp of one of the at least two signal sequences is output, the apparatus further including a mixer mixing a frequency-modulated transmit signal with a signal received by at least one antenna of the radar system, a mixed product of the mixer being converted from analog to digital, a digitized signal of each of the at least two signal sequences being transformed into a two-dimensional spectrum, and phase noise being detected in each of the two-dimensional spectra, the computer program, when executed by a computer, causing the computer to perform:

• in a first step, comparing phase changes of received signals over all two-dimensional spectra to a precalculated model;
• and
• in a second step, ascertaining a cause of the phase noise using one or more predetermined criteria.

An apparatus for emitting electromagnetic radiation and receiving partial radiation reflected by objects, which is able to determine the instantaneous performance of its system detection, comprising:

• a device configured to emit a frequency-modulated transmit signal which has at least two signal sequences, that have ramps, each succeeding one another in the frequency characteristic, with gaps in between,
• the at least two signal sequences being interleaved with each other with a predetermined time offset in such a way that in each case a first ramp of each of the at least two signal sequences is output before a second ramp of one of the at least two signal sequences is output;
• a mixer configured to mix the frequency-modulated transmit signal with a signal received by at least one antenna of a radar system;
• an analog-to-digital converter configured to digitize a mixed product of the mixer;
• a device configured to transform the digitized signal of each one of the at least two signal sequences into a two-dimensional spectrum;
• a device configured to detect phase noise in each of the two-dimensional spectra;
• and
• a device configured to, in a first step, compare phase changes of received reflected signals over all two-dimensional spectra to a precalculated model, and in a second step, ascertain a cause of phase noise using one or more predetermined criteria.