Patent ID: 6862517

Claim:
A method for processing a sensor signal of a knocking sensor for an internal combustion engine having the following steps: a time window for evaluating the sensor signal is defined as a function of an operating state and/or an operating behavior of the internal combustion engine, a plurality of sampled values of the sensor signal are sampled within the predefined time window with a predefined sampling frequency, an output signal which represents a knocking behavior of the internal combustion engine is determined from the sampled values, a Fourier transform of the sampled values being calculated in order to determine the output signal, wherein, before a normal operation, the sampling frequency is adapted, in an adjustment procedure, to a frequency range of a knocking signal of the internal combustion engine, and wherein during a setting procedure the output signal is calculated for various values of the sampling frequency and during the normal operation the sampling frequency is set to the value at which the output signal is at a maximum.