Receiver design for dynamic range enhancement in radar systems

A radar device comprising:

• one or more receiver circuits configured to receive reflected radio frequency (RF) signals reflected by one or more objects in a view area of the radar device, each receiver circuit comprises:
• a mixer configured to downconvert the reflected RF signals;
• an analog-to-digital converter (ADC) configured to quantize the reflected RF signals, for a first RF signal of the reflected RF signals, the ADC is configured to quantize the first downconverted RF signal using a first resolution to produce a digital signal from a first slow-time slot of the first RF signal;
• a Doppler plane cancelation circuit configured to generate a cancellation signal configured to cancel object information corresponding to one or more stationary or moving objects with known Doppler in the view area;
• and
• a node between the mixer and the ADC to combine the downconverted reflected RF signals and the cancellation signal prior to quantization by the ADC;
• wherein, for subsequent RF signals of the reflected RF signals, the receiver circuit is configured to:
• adjust the ADC to have a second resolution that is less than the first resolution;
• and
• determine radar cross-section (RCS) data for one or more other moving objects within the view area using the ADC measurements at the second resolution.

A method of determining one or more objects in a view area of a radar system, the method comprising:

• receiving, at one or more antennas of a receiver circuit of a radar device, reflected signals reflected by one or more objects in a view area of the receiver circuit;
• quantizing a first reflected signal using an analog-to-digital converter (ADC) of the receiver circuit, the ADC having a first resolution to produce a first digital signal;
• determining, using a Doppler plane cancellation circuit of the receiver circuit, a cancellation signal based on prior Doppler information and the first digital signal;
• removing, using a node, reflected signals due to one or more stationary or moving objects with known Doppler information from subsequent reflected signals based on the cancellation signal;
• adjusting a resolution of the ADC from the first resolution to a second resolution that is less than the first resolution;
• and
• quantizing, using the ADC, subsequent reflected signals to determine data corresponding to one or more other moving objects within the view area.

A radar device comprising:

• one or more receiver circuits configured to receive reflected signals reflected by one or more objects in a view area of the radar device, each receiver circuit is configured to:
• for a first reflected signal of the reflected signals, quantize the first reflected signal using an analog-to-digital (ADC) converter having a first resolution to produce a digital signal from a first slow-time slot;
• determine a cancellation signal based on prior Doppler information and the digital signal corresponding to one or more stationary objects within the view area;
• apply the cancellation signal to subsequent reflected signals of the reflected signals at a summing node of the receiver circuit to remove stationary object information from the subsequent reflected signals to produce filtered signals;
• adjust the ADC to have a second resolution that is less than the first resolution;
• and
• quantize the filtered signals using the adjusted ADC to determine radar cross-section (RCS) data for one or more moving objects within the view area.