Generalized Ambiguity Function Analysis and Geometry Parameter Optimization for Flexible Conformal Array-MIMO Radar

Flexible conformal array (FCA) can be regarded as an intelligent antenna array with deformable surface that can be widely used for smart skin or deformable aircraft. This article extends the concept of FCA to FCA multiple-input multiple-output (FCA-MIMO) radar system through a unified framework and formulates a generalized ambiguity function, which is parameterized with transmit and receive steering vectors related to array geometry parameters (AGPs), to evaluate the FCA-MIMO radar system performance in range, angle, and Doppler dimensions, respectively. Both theoretical analysis and numerical experiments show that AGPs have a meaningful influence on angle resolution, while little effect on range and Doppler resolution. This implies FCA-MIMO radar can enhance angle resolution or interference suppression performance by optimizing AGPs. Accordingly, one optimization approach is proposed for the FCA-MIMO radar to improve interference suppression performance, whose effectiveness is verified by numerical results.