A Transmitter Design for the Multi-beam CC-OFDM Azimuth Scanning MIMO Radar

A conventional phased array radar provides a high gain by transmitting coherent signals over a large number of antenna elements. However, it does not provide a full time-on-target because it produces a beam that scans the whole angular view of the radar. This paper describes an implementation of circulating codes (CC) in azimuth scanning MIMO radar that adopts OFDM waveform. The CC MIMO technique can produce a beam toward a certain angle by applying an appropriate delay difference between the MIMO antennas that transmit the same waveform across the azimuth. The adoption of OFDM waveform in the CC MIMO radar, gives the possibility to apply the phase difference for beamforming in the frequency domain of the OFDM signals. CC-OFDM MIMO with spectrum division into sub-bands and use of orthogonal codes, allow for simultaneous transmission of orthogonal OFDM symbols that generate orthogonal beams toward different angles. This strategy makes it possible for the radar system to have multiple and simultaneous beamforming to provide a full-time coverage. Furthermore, the transmission of a series of orthogonal OFDM symbols in each beam enables the detection of long-range targets. By taking as an example the design of long-range surveillance radar, the paper discusses further issues pertinent to the implementation of the CC OFDM MIMO radar, including the beam squinting problem and its remedy, arrangement of the multiple beams, the radar system structure, use of Golay codes for orthogonalization and PAPR mitigation, use of software-defined radar that eliminates the need of amplitude and phase control in each transmitter, transmit scheduling for multi-beam long-range target detection, and multidimensional ambiguity function analysis. The latter indicates that the CC OFDM MIMO radar can achieve a high resolution in angle, range, and velocity, with beam isolation of −30 dB for neighboring beams and co-channel beams.