A New Waveform Design Method for Multi-Target Inverse Synthetic Aperture Radar Imaging Based on Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing Chirp

With the increasing use of the strategy and group target attack method in the modern battlefield, multi-target inverse synthetic aperture radar (ISAR) imaging simultaneously with high efficiency draws more and more attention, which gives a promising prospect for aerospace target detection and recognition in the multi-target scenario. To overcome the shortcomings of traditional multi-target imaging with one beam at one pulse repetition time (PRT) based on phase array radar (PAR), this paper proposes a novel multi-target imaging waveform design method based on the newly full digital array radar (DAR). Firstly, we propose using radar waveform diversity with 2D orthogonality to realize multi-target ISAR imaging with high imaging quality and efficiency. Then, to meet the constant modulus requirement for maximizing the transmitting power, orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) chirp theory is proposed to directly generate the transmit waveform instead of the traditional optimization method with the nonconvex problem for waveform design. Based on time-variant weighted and time diversity technology, a of group transmit waveforms is designed, which can form multiple beams simultaneously and make the signals arriving at different targets approximately orthogonal. Finally, simulations and experiments are carried out to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.