Low-cost solutions for mobile passive radar based on multichannel DPCA and NULA configurations

Abstract

In this paper, we investigate low-cost solutions for enabling ground moving target indication applications with multichannel mobile passive radar systems. As known, in order to be competitive with their active counterparts, passive radars are typically characterized by severe constraints in terms of cost, complexity, and compactness, especially when installed on moving platforms. On the one hand, carrying out the computations onboard requires processing techniques as simple as possible. On the other hand, the need for lightweight and compact systems that can be installed on a moving platform requires using a limited number of receiving channels. To meet these requirements, we propose a series of nonadaptive detectors based on multichannel displaced phase center antennas, which allow suppressing the Doppler-spread clutter component without requiring computationally intensive space–time adaptive processing techniques. Moreover, we explore the use of nonuniformly spaced array configurations on receive, which represent a good alternative to conventional uniform linear arrays when a limited number of receiving channels can be implemented. The effectiveness of the proposed processing techniques and antenna design solutions is demonstrated via numerical analysis for the case of a DVB-T-based mobile passive radar system.