Stepped frequency signal property analysis based on Ambiguity function

Ambiguity function (AF) is an effective tool for radar signal analysis and waveform design, which is only determined by the transmitting waveform. AF reflects target resolution and clutter suppression ability of radar under the best receiving mode. Among high resolution radar signals, stepped frequency (SF) signal is a kind of reliable and efficient radar signal. Therefore, the research of SF signal has attracted extensive attention in recent years. In order to analyze the property of SF signal in detail, in this paper, we propose a property analysis method of SF signal based on AF to provide important basis for waveform design. Through mathematical modeling and experimental verification, we find the amplitude modulation term which controls the primary performance of SF signal. We also analyze and compare the performance of linear stepped frequency (LSF) signal and random stepped frequency (RSF) signal to find that the performance of AF of RSF signal tends to be better than LSF signal under the same conditions. In addition, we found that when the frequency shift is zero or the time delay is zero, the AF performance of LSF and RSF signals is similar by the formula derivation and experiment.