Enhanced range-velocity finding in frequency-modulated continuous wave radar

A radar transceiver, comprising:

• one or more transmitter circuits configured to drive a transmit antenna to emit a first transmit signal, the first transmit signal comprising a plurality of chirps;
• a receiver configured to detect a second signal using a receive antenna during a detection period;
• and
• a processor coupled to the one or more transmitter circuits and the receiver, and configured to:
• downmix the second signal with a reference chirp signal to obtain a range signal;
• perform a frequency transform on the range signal to obtain, for each chirp in the plurality of chirps, a set of range coefficients;
• compress each set of range coefficients to obtain a compressed coefficient set;
• store each compressed coefficient set in a buffer;
• decompress each compressed coefficient set to obtain buffered sets of range coefficients;
• and
• process the buffered sets of range coefficients to determine a range to a reflector of the first transmit signal.

A method of generating a velocity matrix in a radar system, comprising:

• receiving a range signal using processor;
• producing a set of range coefficients by performing a first fast Fourier transform on the range signal, the set of range coefficients corresponding to a first matrix;
• encoding the set of range coefficients of the first matrix in accordance with a Huffman encoding algorithm;
• producing a second matrix by transposing the first matrix, the second matrix having a set of elements;
• decoding the set of elements of the second matrix in accordance with the Huffman encoding algorithm;
• and
• generating a velocity matrix by performing a second fast Fourier transform on the set of elements.

A radar system, comprising:

• a memory configured to receive a plurality of range signals;
• a first processor coupled to the memory, wherein the first processor is configured to determine a plurality of range coefficients by performing a first frequency transform on the plurality of range signals;
• a first codec coupled to the first processor, wherein the first codec is configured to compress the plurality of range signals as a first set of elements using a Huffman encoding algorithm;
• a second processor configured to generate a second set of elements by performing a transpose operation on the first set of elements;
• a second codec configured to decompress the second set of elements;
• and
• a third processor configured to determine a velocity matrix by performing a second frequency transform on the second set of elements.