Infineon Technologies Ag

Bernhard Greslehner-nimmervoll

Rainer Findenig

Thomas Bauernfeind

Christian Schmid

Andreas Schwarz

Francesco Lombardo

Nicolo Guarducci

Thorsten Brandt

Daniel Maier

A radar semiconductor chip includes a ramp signal generator configured to generate a frequency-modulated ramp signal comprising a plurality of frequency ramps of a ramp scenario; a first memory configured to store a sequencing program associated with generating the frequency-modulated ramp signal; a second memory configured to store a firmware program corresponding to a firmware opcode of the sequencing program; a sequencer configured to derive control values for a plurality of ramp parameters based on a plurality of ramp opcodes of the sequencing program, provide the control values to the ramp signal generator, and provide a start signal to start an execution of a firmware call in response to reading the firmware opcode; and a central processing unit configured to receive the start signal from the sequencer and, in response to the start signal, execute the firmware program from the second memory in parallel to the ramp scenario.

Sequencer firmware calls during radar ramp scenario

A frequency linearity measurement circuit configured to measure a frequency linearity of a frequency signal includes: a first measurement circuit configured to generate a first estimate of an integer number of clock cycles of the frequency signal within a respective gate signal period of a gate signal; a second measurement circuit comprising a time-to-digital converter (TDC) configured to generate a second estimate of a fractional number of clock cycle of the frequency signal within the respective gate signal period; a reference measurement circuit configured to generate a third estimate of an expected number of clock cycles within the respective gate signal period; and a closed-loop frequency tracking circuit configured to track a frequency error between an expected frequency and a measured frequency, where the expected frequency and the measured frequency are determined based on the third estimate and on a sum of the first estimate and the second estimate, respectively.

Real-time chirp signal frequency linearity measurement

A semiconductor chip comprising at least one transmit channel and/or at least one receive channel for radar signals and also a sequencing circuit is proposed. In this case, the sequencing circuit is configured centrally to determine a sequencing scheme for time-dependent functions of the transmit channel and/or of the receive channel and to drive circuit elements of the transmit channel and/or of the receive channel in accordance with the sequencing scheme.

Semiconductor chip and device and method for driving at least one channel for a radar signal

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Hagenberg, Austria

Bernhard Greslehner-nimmervoll