A method for cancelling phase noise in a radar signal is described herein. In accordance with one embodiment, the method includes transmitting an RF oscillator signal, which represents a local oscillator signal including phase noise, to a radar channel and receiving a respective first RF radar signal from the radar channel. The first RF radar signal included at least one radar echo of the transmitted RF oscillator signal. Further, the method includes applying the RF oscillator signal to an artificial radar target composed of circuitry, which applies a delay and a gain to the RF oscillator signal, to generate a second RF radar signal. The second RF radar signal is modulated by a modulation signal thus generating a frequency-shifted RF radar signal. Further, the method includes subtracting the frequency-shifted RF radar signal from the first RF radar signal.

A method for analyzing the resolution and/or the accuracy of a transmission unit of a radar sensor is described wherein a transmitter signal is received via a receiving unit. At least one echo signal based on said received signal is simulated. The frequency difference of said transmitter signal and said echo signal is determined. Said frequency difference is filtered and transformed in order to obtain a transform. At least one maximum of said frequency difference in said transform is detected. Spectral properties of said frequency difference in said transform are determined. At least one quality parameter of said spectral properties is outputted. Further, a radar sensor is described.

A testing device for testing a distance sensor includes: a receiving element for receiving an electromagnetic free-space wave as a received signal; an emission element for emitting an electromagnetic output signal; and a signal processing unit. During a simulation operation, the received signal or a received signal derived from the received signal is guided via a signal processing unit with a predefinable time delay to form a time-delayed signal as a simulated reflection signal. The signal processing unit is configured to fully process a received temporally coherent and temporally limited sensor signal or a received temporally coherent and temporally limited sensor signal derived from the received sensor signal in a delay step with the predefinable time delay as a constant working time delay to form a time-delayed sensor signal, wherein the predefinable time delay was predefined at the start of the delay step.

A method of testing a frequency synthesizer over a predetermined frequency range using a delay unit complying with a spectral delay distribution model modeling a spectral delay distribution of the delay unit over the predetermined frequency range. The method comprises generating at least one test signal with the frequency synthesizer according to at least one test command; passing the at least one test signal through the delay unit so as to obtain at least one delayed test signal; measuring at least one shift of a signal attribute between the delayed test signal and the test signal; estimating an accuracy of the frequency synthesizer by comparing the at least one measured shift with an expected shift, the expected shift being derived from the spectral delay distribution model of the delay unit and from the at least one test command.

Devices and methods for testing altimeters are provided. A radio-frequency (RF) signal may be received from an altimeter and passed through an RF delay module to delay the RF signal. The delayed RF signal may be converted to an optical signal, which may be passed through an optical delay module to delay the optical signal. The system tests the accuracy of the altimeter based on the combined RF signal delay and optical signal delay.

A method for estimating phase noise of an RF oscillator signal in a frequency-modulated continuous-wave (FMCW) radar system and related radar devices are provided. The method includes applying the RF oscillator signal to an artificial radar target composed of circuitry, which applies a delay and a gain to the RF oscillator signal, to generate an RF radar signal. Furthermore, the method includes down-converting the RF radar signal received from the artificial radar target from an RF frequency band to a base band, digitizing the down-converted RF radar signal to generate a digital radar signal, and calculating a decorrelated phase noise signal from the digital radar signal. A power spectral density of the decorrelated phase noise is then calculated from the decorrelated phase noise signal, and the power spectral density of the decorrelated phase noise is converted into a power spectral density of the phase noise of an RF oscillator signal.

In a Time Domain Reflectometry (TDR) measurement system including a measurement probe and an electronics assembly, a method for generating a time delay between transmit and receive pulses for capturing measurements in a given measurement cycle, comprising initiating first relatively slow and second relatively fast time-dependent non-linear ramped waveform functions associated with transmit and receive signals, respectively; and initiated at a time prior to initiation of the first time-dependent non-linear ramped waveform at a second time t.sub.0; comparing outputs of the first and second time dependent non-linear ramped waveform functions and activating a receive signal to measure a data point along the waveguide at a third time t.sub.1 when the outputs of the first and second time-dependent non-linear functions are equal; wherein the first and second time-dependent non-linear ramped functions are configured such that their waveform characteristics produces a time delay between time t.sub.0 and time t.sub.1 that is a linear function of time.

Methods for monitoring of performance parameters of one or more receive channels and/or one or more transmit channels of a radar system-on-a-chip (SOC) are provided. The radar SOC may include a loopback path coupling at least one transmit channel to at least one receive channel to provide a test signal from the at least one transmit channel to the at least one receive channel when the radar SOC is operated in test mode. In some embodiments, the loopback path includes a combiner coupled to each of one or more transmit channels, a splitter coupled to each of one or more receive channels, and a single wire coupling an output of the combiner to an input of the splitter.

The present disclosure relates to a delay device for checking a frequency modulated continuous wave (FMCW) radar, measuring a distance of a target and a relative velocity using microwaves and millimeter waves of a frequency modulated continuous waveform, and may include an input/output unit that is configured to input or output a control setting value, a controller that is configured to output a control signal corresponding to the control setting value input by an operator through the input/output unit, and a transceiver that is configured to delay an FMCW radar signal, for output, by a time delay corresponding to a distance of a target through a programmable single chip delay line according to the control signal of the controller, and configured to shift a frequency of the time-delayed FMCW radar signal by a Doppler frequency, and attenuate the frequency-shifted FMCW radar signal for output.

A system for estimating a substance level in a storage unit is disclosed. In one embodiment, the system includes a cable and a control device. The control device sense pulses down the cable and based on the time of reflected pulses determines the level of substance in the storage unit.