RADAR ANTENNA ASSEMBLY FOR A VEHICLE, VEHICLE, AND METHOD FOR PRODUCING A RADAR ANTENNA ASSEMBLY

Abstract

A radar antenna assembly for a vehicle, including a composite window pane and at least one radar device designed to transmit and/or receive radar beam. The at least one radar device has an antenna unit and an amplifier unit. The amplifier unit is designed to provide an electrical driver signal for the antenna unit, and/or to receive an electrical echo signal from the antenna unit. The antenna unit may be arranged in the composite window pane of the vehicle, the amplifier unit may be arranged on a surface of the composite window pane, and the antenna unit and the amplifier unit are spatially separate from one another and are electrically interconnected via a connecting element arranged in the composite window pane.

Claims

1-10. (canceled)

11. A radar antenna assembly for a vehicle, comprising: a compound window pane; and at least one radar device configured to communicate radar beams, the at least one radar device comprising a respective antenna unit and a respective amplifier unit for each radar device, each antenna unit being configured in the compound window pane, and each amplifier unit being configured on a surface of the compound window pane, wherein each antenna unit and amplifier unit are spatially separated from each other, and electrically coupled to each other via a connecting element arranged in the compound window pane, wherein each amplifier unit is configured to provide an electrical driver signal for the antenna unit and/or to receive an electrical echo signal from the antenna unit.

12. The radar antenna assembly according to claim 11, wherein the compound window pane comprises at least two glass layers, and wherein the antenna unit is arranged between the glass layers.

13. The radar antenna assembly according to claim 12, wherein at least one of the glass layers is coated with the antenna unit.

14. The radar antenna assembly according to claim 12, wherein at least one of the glass layers comprises metallic conductor paths, which electrically contact the amplifier unit.

15. The radar antenna assembly according to claim 11, wherein the connecting element is arranged in a bore in the compound window pane.

16. The radar antenna assembly according to claim 11, wherein the connecting element is arranged perpendicular to the antenna unit.

17. The radar antenna assembly according to claim 11, wherein the compound window pane comprises at least one foil layer, and wherein the antenna unit is printed onto the foil layer.

18. The radar antenna assembly according to claim 11, wherein the compound window pane comprises at least one optical light guide, and wherein the at least one optical light guide is coupled to the amplifier unit via an optical coupling element.

19. A method for manufacturing a radar antenna assembly for a vehicle, comprising: forming a compound window pane; forming at least one radar device configured to communicate radar beams, the at least one radar device comprising a respective antenna unit and a respective amplifier unit for each radar device, each antenna unit being configured in the compound window pane, and each amplifier unit being configured on a surface of the compound window pane, wherein each antenna unit and amplifier unit are spatially separated from each other, and electrically coupled to each other via a connecting element arranged in the compound window pane, wherein forming the at least one radar device comprises configuring each amplifier unit to provide an electrical driver signal for the antenna unit and/or to receive an electrical echo signal from the antenna unit

20. The method according to claim 19, wherein forming the at least one radar device comprises forming the compound window pane to include at least two glass layers, and wherein the antenna unit is arranged between the glass layers.

21. The method according to claim 20, wherein forming the at least one radar device comprises coating at least one of the glass layers with the antenna unit.

22. The method according to claim 20, wherein at least one of the glass layers comprises metallic conductor paths, which electrically contact the amplifier unit.

23. The method according to claim 19, wherein forming the at least one radar device comprises arranging the connecting element in a bore in the compound window pane.

24. The method according to claim 19, wherein forming the at least one radar device comprises arranging the connecting element perpendicular to the antenna unit.

25. The method according to claim 19, wherein the compound window pane comprises at least one foil layer, and wherein the antenna unit is printed onto the foil layer.

26. The method according to claim 11, wherein the compound window pane comprises at least one optical light guide, and wherein the at least one optical light guide is coupled to the amplifier unit via an optical coupling element.

27. A radar antenna assembly for a vehicle, comprising: a compound window pane; and at least one radar device configured to communicate radar beams, the at least one radar device comprising a respective antenna unit and a respective amplifier unit for each radar device, each antenna unit being configured in the compound window pane, and each amplifier unit being configured on a surface of the compound window pane, wherein each antenna unit and amplifier unit are spatially separated from each other, and electrically coupled to each other via a connecting element arranged in the compound window pane, wherein the compound window pane comprises at least two glass layers, and wherein the antenna unit is arranged between the glass layers, and wherein each amplifier unit is configured to provide an electrical driver signal for the antenna unit and/or to receive an electrical echo signal from the antenna unit.

28. The radar antenna assembly according to claim 27, wherein at least one of the glass layers is coated with the antenna unit.

29. The radar antenna assembly according to claim 27, wherein the compound window pane comprises at least one foil layer, and wherein the antenna unit is printed onto the foil layer.

30. The radar antenna assembly according to claim 27, wherein the compound window pane comprises at least one optical light guide, and wherein the at least one optical light guide is coupled to the amplifier unit via an optical coupling element.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0025] Below, an embodiment of the present disclosure is described. Hereto, there shows:

[0026] FIG. 1 a radar antenna assembly for a vehicle according to some aspects of the present disclosure;

[0027] FIG. 2 shows a radar antenna assembly in a compound window pane according to some aspects of the present disclosure; and

[0028] FIG. 3 shows a further radar antenna assembly in a compound window pane according to some aspects of the present disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0029] Examples explained below are preferred embodiments of the present disclosure. In the embodiments, the described components of the embodiment each represent individual features of the present disclosure to be considered independently of each other, which each also developing the present disclosure independently of each other and thereby are also to be regarded as a constituent of the present disclosure in individual manner or in a combination different from the shown one. Furthermore, the described embodiments can also be supplemented by further ones of the already described features.

[0030] In the figures, functionally identical elements are each provided with the same reference characters.

[0031] FIG. 1 shows a radar antenna assembly for a vehicle. The radar antenna assembly 1 can include a compound window pane 2. The compound window pane 2 can for example comprise a first glass layer 3 and a second glass layer 4. An antenna unit 5 can be arranged between the first glass layer 3 and the second glass layer 4, which can be configured for transmitting and/or receiving radar beams 6. The antenna unit 5 can for example be composed of gold, silver, copper, aluminum or any other electrically conducting material. The antenna unit 5 can, for example, be applied to the first glass layer 3 by means of an evaporation method or an atomization method. The antenna unit 5 can have a predetermined geometry and for example be configured as a patch antenna or rod antenna. For providing the geometry, the antenna unit 5 can be applied by means of a mask. It can also be provided that the first glass layer 3 has been completely coated with a material and unnecessary areas have been ablated by means of etching methods or atomization methods for obtaining the antenna unit 5.

[0032] The second glass layer 4 can be arranged on the first glass layer 3 by means of a synthetic resin 7. In order to be able to supply the antenna unit 5 with an electrical driver signal 8 or to be able to pass an electrical echo signal 9 received by the antenna unit 5, it can be provided that a bore 10 is provided in the second glass layer, which has been manufactured by means of a drill or a laser. A connecting element 11 can be arranged in the bore 10, which can be manufactured by an input of an electrically conducting material into the bore 10. The antenna unit 5 can be connected to an amplifier unit 12 in electrically conducting manner via the connecting element 11 and together form the radar device 13. The amplifier unit 12 can be arranged on a surface of the second glass layer 4. The amplifier unit 12 can be configured to receive optical driver signals 14, to convert them into the electrical driver signal 8 and to supply them to the antenna unit 5 via the connecting element 11. The amplifier unit 12 can be configured to receive an electrical echo signal 9 via the connecting unit 11 and to convert it into an optical echo signal 15.

[0033] The amplifier unit 12 can be connected to an optical light guide 17 via an optical coupling element 16. The optical coupling element 16 can be configured to allow a coupling of an optical driver signal 14 from the optical light guide 17 into the amplifier unit 12 or to allow a coupling of the optical echo signal 15 from the amplifier unit 12 into the optical light guide 17. The optical light guide 17 can for example be composed of glass fiber and be arranged on the second glass layer 4. The optical coupling element 16 can for example be grating couplers, butt couplers or adiabatic couplers. Metallic conductor paths 18 can be arranged in the second glass layer 4 to supply the amplifier unit 12 with electrical current or to dissipate heat from the amplifier unit 12.

[0034] FIG. 2 shows a radar antenna assembly in a compound window pane. The radar antenna assembly 1 includes multiple radar devices 13, which comprise a respective antenna unit 5 and a respective amplifier unit 12, which are arranged spaced from each other and are connected to each other via a respective connecting element 11. It can be provided that the antenna units 5 have been applied to a foil by means of a printing method. The foil 19 can be adhered to the first glass layer 3. The second glass layer 4 can be arranged on the foil 19 itself. Respective amplifier units 12 can be arranged on a surface of the second glass layer 4.

[0035] FIG. 3 shows a radar antenna assembly in a compound window pane. The antenna units 5 can for example be configured as rod antennas. The connecting units 11 can connect the antenna units 5 to the respective amplifier units 12 in electrically conducting manner, wherein the connecting units 11 can be arranged normal to the compound window pane 2. Hereby, it is avoided that portions of radiated electromagnetic fields of the connecting units 11 affect the electromagnetic fields of the antenna units 5. The amplifier units 12 can be optically connected via the optical light guides 17. The antenna assembly 1 can for example be arranged in a vehicle 20, wherein the vehicle 20 can for example be a passenger car or a truck. The compound window pane 2 can for example be a front or a rear window of the vehicle 20.

[0036] The novel radar antenna assembly 1 utilizes photonically integrated amplifier units 12 (so-called radar chips) to span a large radar array. The amplifier units 12 can be arranged behind the windscreen. Herein, amplifier units 12 and antenna units 5 are separated such that only the antenna units 5 are integrated in the front window. Therein, the high-frequency connection (the connecting element 11) between the amplifier unit 12 and the respective antenna unit 5 is produced by a bore (mechanically or by laser), which is filled with a conducting material.

[0037] By the direct integration of the antenna units 5 in the compound window pane 2, a highly precisely arranged antenna array can be manufactured, which allows spatial dimensions of above one meter and thus allows angular separabilities of 0.1° and below. Therein, the integration of the antenna units 5 can for example be effected by the following methods:

[0038] An embodiment can provide prefabrication and insertion of the antenna units 5 into a multilayer arrangement (sandwich structure) of glass layers 3, 4 of the compound window pane 2. Subsequently, the individual glass layers 3, 4 of the compound window pane 2 can be combined, whereby the antenna units 5 are fixed in their position at the same time. For that, the antenna units 5 can be prefabricated and inserted into the compound window pane 2 between glass layers 3, 4.

[0039] A further embodiment can provide metal evaporation of a pane side of the first glass layer 3 and a subsequent material ablation for obtaining the antenna units 5 with predetermined antenna geometries (by laser, sputtering, etching or the like). Metallic conductor paths 18 can be integrated in the compound window pane 2 for electrically contacting the amplifier units 12. Alternatively, the uppermost glass layer 4 can be also etched away at the location, at which the amplifier unit 12 is seated, such that the amplifier unit 12 is connected to a structured metallized surface by flip chip. The conductor paths 18 can also be employed for cooling the amplifier units 12.

[0040] An implementation provides printing of the antenna units 5 onto foil and integration in the compound window pane 2. Herein, the individual amplifier units 12 are synchronized by an optical fiber. It also serves for signal transfer of the radar signals to be transmitted (Tx) and received (Rx) at optical frequencies. Alternatively to individual glass fiber lines, waveguides can also be directly introduced into the glass (PLC) in the above described implementation. They pass the Tx and Rx radar signals converted into the optical frequency range to the individual amplifier units 12. Optically contacting the amplifier units 12 with the waveguide could occur by means of grating couplers, butt coupling or adiabatic couplers. Thereby, there could be an individual optical coupling location in the front window, which distributes all of the signals of the radar chips.

[0041] For automatically driving, environmental capture as secure as possible is indispensable. Therein, the environment is captured with the aid of sensors like radar, lidar and camera. An integral 360° 3D capture of the environment is particularly important such that all of the static and dynamic objects are captured. In particular, a leading part is accrued to the lidar in the redundant, robust environmental capture since this sensor type can precisely measure distances in the environmental capture and can also be employed for classification. However, these sensors are cost-intensive and expensive in their construction. In particular the 360° 3D environmental capture is problematic since either many smaller individual sensors are required to ensure it, which usually operate with many individual light sources and detector elements, or large sensors are installed. However, the smaller sensor types are also still in the range of 10×10×10 cm.sup.3 in their spatial dimensions and do not allow a visible installation position up to now.

[0042] Furthermore, the data individually collected by each sensor has to be individually processed and/or fused. Therein, the accurate time stamping is in particular important for the real-time processing, which additionally makes the data capture and classification expensive.

[0043] In the area of the passive safety systems as well as for automatically driving at level four and five, the discriminability of the traffic participants is of particular importance both for the protection of the occupants and of the traffic participants. Thereto, the secure environmental capture is indispensable. In order to guarantee this, the environment has to be perceived with a resolution as high as possible in all of the three spatial dimensions. Modern camera and LIDAR systems are capable of ensuring this environmental capture, but are affected in their quality or completely fail in poor visibility conditions like fog, snow or in darkness. In contrast, radar sensors are not subject to these limitations, but have to be arranged in an array arrangement with a plurality of different sensors for 3D imaging with high resolution. Moreover, they have to be synchronized with respect to their transmission and reception time, which is technically extremely challenging. Therefore, it is advantageous if the individual radar sensors are as small, simple, flexible, error-tolerant, robust and inexpensive as possible. For this purpose, as little electronics as possible has to be installed on the radar sensor itself, and the digital data processing has to occur in decentralized manner within a central control unit.

[0044] Conventional radar systems in series production have an angle separability in azimuth of 10° to 4°. The angular separability in elevation is usually even lower such that imaging methods cannot be used for radar data. The angular separability of current LiDAR systems is in the range of 0.1°, which cannot be achieved with current radar systems.

[0045] Current radar sensors, which are installed in the car, mostly have dimensions of 10×10 cm. The maximum angular resolution achieved thereby is ca. 2° and only allows 2D environmental capture. The current radar sensors have too large spatial dimensions with small aperture for vehicles, from which a too low resolution power results. It does not allow sufficient environmental capture for autonomously driving. The installation of multiple sensors requires the temporal synchronization thereof, which is technically challenging and cost-intensive. Nanoradars have dimensions in the range of 5×5 cm and can be easier integrated in the vehicle by their compact construction. Nanoradars have the same disadvantages. Moreover, the range of the nanoradars is currently limited to 45 m, which is too low in particular for intraurban scenarios. The resolution power can be increased up to the cm range by means of the synthetic aperture method (English: “Synthetic Aperture Radar”, SAR). The SAR method is only possible perpendicular to the direction of travel. A foresight into or opposite to the direction of travel is not possible with this method. In addition, the data processing required after the measurement is very computationally intensive.

[0046] The installation of many electronic components within the sensors increases the spatial dimensions and costs thereof such that the use of multiple sensors is not implementable.

[0047] Moreover, the temporal synchronization of the sensors is technically challenging. If the aperture is to occur by distribution of the antennas and subsequent decentral digital data processing within a central control unit, however, the electrical transfer of the transmit and receive signal is problematic since the losses would be several dB.

[0048] Furthermore, it is required to use multiple individual sensors. Large spatial dimensions of the sensors do not allow a concealed installation on a vehicle such that they remain visible. By the use of multiple individual sensors, a relatively high effort for synchronization of the individual sensors is required. In addition, the data fusion is expensive and prone to error since a central data capture is not effected, but each individual sensor itself captures and forwards the data. High costs result from it.

[0049] In contrast, the antenna assembly according to the present disclosure includes a plurality of advantages with respect to the prior art. Overall, it is more inexpensive than known solutions. The arrangement of the radar device in a compound window pane allows high precision in the manufacture because the compound window pane is relatively rigid compared to metal sheet. A simple integration of the antenna assembly in the vehicle is allowed. The manufacture is effected using established technologies, which are available in mass production and largely developed. A simple construction is allowed. A reduction of the number of individual sensors can be effected, whereby the calibration can be simplified. A concealed installation becomes possible. The large surface of the assembly allows an angular separability of <=0.1° extremely high for radar.

[0050] Overall, the example shows how providing radar antenna units in a window pane of a vehicle is allowed by the present disclosure.

LIST OF REFERENCE CHARACTERS

[0051] 1 Radar antenna assembly

[0052] 2 compound window pane

[0053] 3 first glass layer

[0054] 4 second glass layer

[0055] 5 antenna unit

[0056] 6 radar beams

[0057] 7 synthetic resin

[0058] 8 electrical driver signal

[0059] 9 electrical echo signal

[0060] 10 bore

[0061] 11 connecting unit

[0062] 12 amplifier unit

[0063] 13 radar device

[0064] 14 optical driver signal

[0065] 15 optical echo signal

[0066] 16 coupling element

[0067] 17 light guide

[0068] 18 conductor paths

[0069] 19 foil

[0070] 20 vehicle