Compact Parameterization of Nonrepeating FMCW Radar Waveforms

Abstract

Spectrally shaped forms of random frequency modulation (RFM) radar waveforms have been experimentally demonstrated for a variety of implementation approaches and applications. Of these, the continuous-wave (CW) perspective is particularly interesting because it enables the prospect of very high signal dimensionality and arbitrary receive processing from a range/Doppler perspective, while also mitigating range ambiguities by avoiding repetition. Here we leverage a modification to the constant-envelope orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (CE-OFDM) framework, which was originally proposed for power-efficient communications, to realize a nonrepeating FMCW radar signal that can be represented with a compact parameterization, thereby circumventing memory constraints that could arise for some applications. Experimental loopback and open-air measurements are used to demonstrate this waveform type.