Continuous wave radar with ranging capability

Claim 1

A frequency modulated continuous wave radar adapted to determine the range of a target by measuring the propagation delay of echo signals therefrom, such radar comprising: (a) a transmitter for continuously emitting a beam of radio frequency energy with repetitive linearly varying modulation, the period of such modulation being equal to, or greater than, the largest propagation delay; (b) a receiver for converting all received signals to baseband signals and for passing only signals having a frequency above a predetermined frequency; (c) first means, responsive to the signals out of the receiver, for converting such signals to a first plurality of sets of complex digital numbers representative of echo signals from a target during each modulation period and for storing such sets of complex digital numbers; (d) a read only memory means storing a set of complex digital numbers representative of the modulation waveform, as modified by the receiver, of the transmitted signal; (e) a digital correlator, responsive repetitively to the complex digital numbers in the first plurality of stored sets of complex digital numbers and to the set of complex digital numbers in the read only memory means, such latter set being repetitively read with differing delays with respect to the modulation waveform on the transmitted signal, for producing a second plurality of differently correlated signals in the form of sets of complex digital numbers having the format Ir±Qi where I and Q are the real and imaginary parts of the complex digital numbers out of the first means and r and i are the real and imaginary parts of the complex digital numbers out of the first means and r and i are the real and imaginary parts of the complex digital numbers out of the read only memory means; (f) Fourier transforms means, responsive to the correlated signals, for producing a like plurality of frequency spectra; and (g) second means, responsive to the frequency spectra out of the Fourier transform means, for calculating the propagation delay of the most correlated signals.