Optimizing the Tradeoff Between Radar Waveform Resolution and Sidelobe Level Using a Dolph-Chebyshev Approach

Abstract

The design and optimization of radar waveforms to possess minimal sidelobes has been an active area of research for decades. Here a new formulation of the trade space between the intrinsic resolution of a radar waveform and its sidelobe level is explored. Specifically, the tradeoff between main lobe resolution and sidelobe level is formally linked via the Dolph-Chebyshev window formulation. It is shown that the frequency-domain Dolph-Chebyshev formulation can be leveraged to generalize this tradeoff for waveform design. Further, the two-tone waveform (known to be optimal from a resolution perspective) and the Gaussian power spectral density waveform (known to be optimal from a sidelobe perspective) are shown to be special cases of this more generic expression. Finally, this new waveform design technique is combined with the pseudo-random optimized frequency modulation (PRO-FM) framework to produce physically realizable. constant modulus waveforms.