Mainlobe deceptive jammer suppression using element-pulse coding with MIMO radar

Abstract Mainlobe deceptive jammer suppression is a critical issue for radar systems. To address this problem, the element-pulse coding (EPC) scheme is proposed in multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) radar. In EPC-MIMO radar, a novel phase modulation is performed in the joint transmit element and pulse domain, resulting in an equivalent spatial frequency offset corresponding to different pulses. In such a way, the true target and mainlobe deceptive jammers, which are generated after a relatively large time delay, are distinguishable because they have different equivalent spatial distributions in the joint transmit-receive spatial frequency domain. In this respect, by selecting an appropriate coding coefficient, the mainlobe deceptive jammers can be suppressed by nulling at the equivalent transmit beampattern of the true target. Moreover, a preset beampattern synthesis (PBPS) method is proposed to enhance the robustness of jammer suppression against direction mismatches by broadening nulls around the jammers and generating a flat-top mainlobe. At the analysis stage, both simulated and measured results are provided to corroborate the effectiveness of the mainlobe deceptive jammer suppression with the developed methods.