Application of the Tophat Reflector in MIMO Radar Near-Field Image Calibration

The tophat reflector has advantages in relatively large and insensitive radar cross section (RCS) over wide ranges of elevation and bistatic angles, being a great candidate for multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) radar image calibration. In this paper, the bistatic physical optics (BPO) RCS solution is derived based on the monostatic-to-bistatic equivalence theorem (MBET). The angular sensitivity of tophat is analyzed in both monostatic and bistatic cases. Outdoor experimental results are presented to demonstrated the usefulness of the tophat calibrator in MIMO radar near-field image calibration.