Slow-Time MIMO Radar Waveform Generator with Experimental Results

Multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) radar realize waveform diversity by transmitting orthogonal waveforms on each array. Generally, implementing the waveform requires multiple signal generators or carrier frequencies, which results in increased hardware complexity and high cost. Slow-time MIMO waveform realizes the orthogonality between waveforms in the Doppler frequency domain, it has the advantage of being easy to implement and the signal processing algorithm is similar to traditional PD radar. However, the current method still implement the Slow-time MIMO waveforms by analog mixing, which has low phase accuracy and easy to be affected by temperature. In this paper, a method for realizing Slow-time MIMO radar waveform based on direct digital waveform synthesis (DDWS) is proposed. The method achieves low cost, high phase precision and strong coherent performance, and can be implemented by using existing radar signal generator. This paper presents the implementation method of Slow-time MIMO waveforms and uses S-band MIMO radar for practical verification.