Closed form fourier-based transmit beamforming for MIMO radar

Abstract

In multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) radar setting, it is often desirable to design correlated waveforms such that power is transmitted only to a given set of locations, a process known as beampattern design. To design desired beam-pattern, current research uses iterative algorithms, first to synthesize the waveform covariance matrix, R, then to design the actual waveforms to realize R. In contrast to this, we present a closed form method to design R that exploits discrete Fourier transform and Toeplitz matrix. The resulting covariance matrix fulfills the practical constraints and performance is similar to that of iterative methods. Next, we present a radar architecture for the desired beampattern that does not require the synthesis of covariance matrix nor the design of correlated waveforms.