BACKGROUND OF THE DISCLOSURE

Field of the Disclosure

Embodiments of the present disclosure generally relate to radar systems, and more specifically relate to failure detection in radar systems.

Description of the Related Art

A new class of safety systems, referred to as advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS), has been introduced into automobiles to reduce human operation error. These systems are enabled by smart sensors based primarily on millimeter-wave automotive radars. The proliferation of such assistance systems, which may provide functionality such as rear-view facing cameras, electronic stability control, and vision-based pedestrian detection systems, has been enabled in part by improvements in microcontroller and sensor technologies. Enhanced embedded radar-based solutions are enabling complementary safety features for ADAS designers.

In an automotive radar system, one or more radar sensors may be used to detect obstacles around the vehicle and the speeds of the detected objects relative to the vehicle. A processing unit in the radar system may determine the appropriate action needed, e.g., to avoid a collision or to reduce collateral damage, based on signals generated by the radar sensors. Current automotive radar systems are capable of detecting objects and obstacles around a vehicle, the position of any detected objects and obstacles relative to the vehicle, and the speed of any detected objects and obstacles relative to the vehicle. Via the processing unit, the radar system may, for example, alert the vehicle driver about potential danger, prevent a collision by controlling the vehicle in a dangerous situation, take over partial control of the vehicle, or assist the driver with parking the vehicle.

Automotive radar systems are required to meet the functional safety specifications of International Standard 26262 titled “Road Vehicles—Functional Safety.” ISO 26262 defines functional safety as the absence of unreasonable risk caused by malfunctioning behavior of electrical/electronic systems. Functional safety in automotive radar is the prevention of harm to humans due to failure of components in the radar. For automotive radar, the radar should be known to be functioning appropriately within a fault tolerant time interval of approximately 100 milliseconds (ms). Thus, while the vehicle is operating, a failure in any part of the radar that would lead to a degraded signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) or false detection of presence or position of obstacles should be detected, and an appropriate response performed within approximately 100 ms.

SUMMARY

Embodiments of the present disclosure relate to methods and apparatus for failure detection in a radar system. In one aspect, a radar system is provided that includes a receive channel including a complex baseband and a processor coupled to the receive channel to receive a first plurality of digital intermediate frequency (IF) samples from an in-band (I) channel of the complex baseband and a corresponding second plurality of digital IF samples from a quadrature (Q) channel of the complex baseband, wherein the processor is configured to execute instructions to compute at least one failure metric based on the first plurality of digital IF samples and the second plurality of digital IF samples.

In one aspect, a method for failure detection in a radar system is provided that includes receiving a first plurality of digital intermediate frequency (IF) samples from an in-band (I) channel of a complex baseband of a receive channel of the radar system and a corresponding second plurality of digital IF samples from a quadrature (Q) channel of the complex baseband, computing at least one failure metric based on the first plurality of digital IF samples and the second plurality of digital IF samples, and determining whether or not a failure has occurred based on the at least one failure metric.

