Waveform Optimization for Transmit Beamforming With MIMO Radar Antenna Arrays

For coherent MIMO radar the optimal target signal processing can be achieved for any transmitted waveforms or radiation beam pattern, making transmit beamforming through waveform design possible without degrading target detection performance. In this work, an innovative waveform optimization approach termed phase-only variable metric method (POVMM) is proposed for coherent MIMO radar waveform design to form a desired transmit beam pattern such as one with radiation nulls in certain directions. The waveform design is carried out by minimizing the radiation powers of the MIMO radar antenna in the selected directions with optimization variables constrained to the waveform phases only. The gradient function of the cost function with regard to waveform phases is analytically derived for the optimization and the POVMM is developed based on the variable metric methods with a flexible search step sizing strategy for improving optimization efficiency. The proposed approach is validated with various designs and simulations.