A novel energy-focused slow-time MIMO radar and signal processing scheme

Abstract

In this paper, we propose a novel energy-focused slow-time MIMO radar and signal processing scheme, aimed at addressing key challenges in slow-time coding and signal processing technology. Conventional slow-time MIMO radar faces issues such as energy waste due to the omnidirectional transmit beampattern of orthogonal coding and the velocity ambiguity problem. To overcome these limitations, the proposed radar system utilizes a method based on Doppler frequency offset diversity (DFOD) for slow-time coding design. This method enables the adjustment of Doppler offset parameters to achieve a rectangular transmit beampattern with any mainlobe width within a single coherent processing interval (CPI), offering the advantage of low computational complexity. Through an analysis of the ambiguity function for DFOD-based coding, we evaluate both Doppler and angular resolution. To further improve Doppler frequency resolution, a slow-time coding design is introduced based on Pulse Random Permutation (PRP). Subsequently, a signal processing scheme based on matched filtering is presented. To tackle the high Doppler sidelobe issue associated with PRP-based coding, we propose a mismatch filter (MMF) design method utilizing convex optimization. Ultimately, the performance enhancement of the proposed slow-time MIMO radar is verified through simulation analysis in comparison to existing technologies.