Joint Design of Narrowband Transmit Waveforms and Receive Filter Banks for Range Super-Resolution and Target Classification

Radar is always striving for higher resolution capabilities. This article proposes a range super-resolution method based on the non-matched filter, achieved through the joint design of transmit waveforms and receive filter banks, resulting in a range resolution performance far beyond the Rayleigh limit of the waveform. The proposed method employs a pulse duration that is only 0.16% of that used in traditional methods, thereby significantly enhancing the real-time performance of target detection, resolution, and range estimation. Moreover, the method achieves superior range measurement accuracy even with such a drastically reduced pulse duration. It also eliminates the near-range detection blind zone of targets and greatly reduces the impact of the Doppler effect on target echoes. The target classification performance is initially explored by fully utilizing the information of the distance and polarization dimensions. Two anechoic chamber scenarios are constructed using dihedral and trihedral setups. Even when the Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR) of the echoes is as low as -10 dB, both scenarios exhibit clear inter-class separability. The method can significantly improve the range resolution performance of the narrowband radar and possesses great potential for target classification, offering broad application prospects in various fields such as vehicle-borne radar, airborne radar, and Low, Slow, Small (LSS) target surveillance radar.