Modern FDA-LFM Radar System and Efficient Range-Angle-Doppler Processing Algorithm

A radar system is proposed that combines frequency diverse array (FDA) and linear frequency modulation (LFM) signals to provide efficient and high-range resolution characteristics. The combined signal could be generated by using a multichannel direct digital synthesizer. Previous studies of the FDA-LFM system based on the delay line are reviewed. Some errors in the signal expressions are corrected and the associated characteristics are revised. For the proposed FDA-LFM radar system, the signal formulations and the signal processing algorithm for range, angle, and Doppler are detailed. The range-time information can initially be extracted by applying the short-time Fourier transform to the time-domain data. In addition, the target angle is extracted from the obtained range-time data through the coordinate transformation. The Doppler information is then extracted by applying the fast Fourier transform to the successive range-angle data. Numerical simulations are performed and the obtained results fully validate the proposed FDA-LFM radar configuration and the systematic and efficient signal processing algorithm. Further Monte Carlo simulations are performed to analyze the estimation accuracy of the proposed radar system.