The ambiguity function of the step frequency radar signal processor

In step frequency radar, the frequency of each pulse is increased in steps to achieve large effective bandwidth sequentially instead of instantaneously and thus easing the requirements on the analog to digital converter (ADC) and other hardware. This paper discusses the step frequency radar and its associated signal processing, and it investigates this type of radar with the ambiguity function. The mathematical expression is derived for the ambiguity function of step frequency radar receiver and processor. The processor functions included are range gating, weighting, fill pulses, and inverse discrete Fourier transform (IDFT). Ambiguity diagrams are plotted for step frequency receiver processor and comparison is made with traditional constant frequency radar.