A Single-Channel Radar With Two Matching Filters Based on Time Modulated Array

Abstract

A single radio frequency channel radar with a mixture of narrow-band and wideband matching filters (MFs) based on a time-modulated array (TMA) is proposed in this letter. Considering the periodic modulation, the transmission energy of the linear frequency modulation signal can be distributed among multiple harmonic components at different directions in space, and these harmonic components correspond to different beam directions. The target position information can be extracted from the echo signal using the narrow-band MFs, providing a reference for direction finding. By comparing the Fourier series coefficients of the harmonics extracted from the wideband matched filter, directional information can be obtained. The utilization of two MFs effectively reduces the computation requirements for harmonic extraction. Numerical simulations are provided to verify the performance of the proposed method, while an eight-element TMA is constructed to verify its feasibility experimentally.