Random Phase Center Motion Technique for Enhanced Angle-Doppler Discrimination Using MIMO Radars

in European Signal Processing Conference (EUSIPCO) 2017 (2017, August)

A random Phase Center Motion (PCM) technique is presented in this paper, based on Frequency Modulated Continuous Wave (FMCW) radar, in order to suppress the angle- Doppler coupling in Time Division ... [more ▼]

A random Phase Center Motion (PCM) technique is presented in this paper, based on Frequency Modulated Continuous Wave (FMCW) radar, in order to suppress the angle- Doppler coupling in Time Division Multiplex (TDM) Multiple- Input-Multiple-Output (MIMO) radar when employing sparse array structures. The presented approach exploits an apparently moving transmit platform or PCM due to spatio-temporal transmit array modulation. In particular, the work considers a framework utilizing a random PCM trajectory. The statistical characterization of the random PCM trajectory is devised, such that the PCM and the target motion coupling is minimal, while the angular resolution is increased by enabling the virtual MIMO concept. In more details, this paper discusses sidelobe suppression approaches within the angle-Doppler Ambiguity Function (AF) by introducing a phase center probability density function within the array. This allows for enhanced discrimination of multiple targets. Simulation results demonstrate the suppression angle- Doppler coupling by more than 30 dB, even though spatiotemporal transmit array modulation is done across chirps which leads usually to strong angle-Doppler coupling. [less ▲]