Angular resolution refinement in a vehicle radar for object identification

A method of angular resolution refinement for a radar system, comprising:

• generating monopulse signals;
• transmitting one or more radio frequency (RF) beams to a surrounding environment of the radar system;
• receiving one or more return RF beams from the surrounding environment;
• generating radar data from the one or more return RF beams;
• detecting a plurality of objects from the radar data;
• determining a direction of arrival of each of the plurality of objects based on the monopulse signals, wherein the direction of arrival of each object is determined based on a phase difference of a return RF beam from the surrounding environment received at two or more receive antennas of the radar system;
• initiating a guard channel detection;
• resolving the guard channel detection with the monopulse signals;
• and
• determining an angular distance between the plurality of objects based on the monopulse signals and the direction of arrival of each of the plurality of objects.

A radar system for use in autonomous vehicles, comprising:

• a set of antennas, comprising:
• one or more transmit antennas configured to radiate one or more transmission radio frequency (RF) beams to a surrounding environment,
• a plurality of receive antennas configured to receive one or more return RF beams reflected from the surrounding environment and generate radar data from the one or more return RF beams, and
• a plurality of receive guard antennas configured to receive the one or more return RF beams;
• a microcontroller coupled to the set of antennas, wherein the microcontroller is configured to detect and identify a plurality of objects from the one or more return RF beams received at the receive guard antennas;
• and
• a processing engine coupled to the microcontroller, the processing engine configured to determine an angle of arrival of each reflection based on a phase difference of the reflection received at two or more receive antennas of the plurality of receive antennas.