Coherent radar system performance estimation

The performance of coherent radar systems is not limited by thermal amplitude noise, but rather by the phase and amplitude effects of errors in the vector detection process. The contributors to the limitation of coherent radar performance are discussed, and the specific effects of the most salient of these are addressed. In addition to the internal motion (spectrum) of the clutter itself, factors which cause the clutter power to occupy other than zero Hertz Doppler bins are: oscillator phase noise, amplifier additive phase noise, timing jitter, analog-to-digital conversion quantization effects, I/Q detector error effects, nonlinear phase across the bandwidth; and amplitude variation across the bandwidth. Several of the dominant causes are discussed.<>