Alleviating Notch Filtering Impacts on Radar Range Detection with the Gerchberg-Saxton Algorithm

The growing demand for spectrum usage has caused spectral environments to become more congested than ever before. This increased spectral congestion presents significant challenges for radar systems in operation. Ultra-wideband (UWB) radars are useful in applications such as high-precision range detection, but obtaining the necessary bandwidth can be difficult when there is interference within the radar’s receiver band. This interference can lead to issues such as signal distortion from saturated low-noise amplifiers (LNAs) as well as a decrease in the signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR). One common approach to addressing these problems is the integration of notch filtering within the radar front-end, which will block known interferers prior to the LNA. While this approach helps to prevent saturation and protect SINR, notching will distort the received waveform, reducing the precision in range detection. This paper presents a preliminary study on how the Gerchberg-Saxton Algorithm can be used to compensate for the impact of notching the received radar waveform, improving correlation precision and consequently, range detection. The compensation is performed by using the knowledge of the received waveform as well as the original transmission to produce a reconstructed phase, thus improving overall range detection upon notching.