Radar Constant-Modulus Waveform Optimization for High-Resolution Range Profiling of Stationary Targets

The high-resolution range (HRR) profile is an important target signature in many applications (e.g., automatic target recognition), and the radar HRR profiling performance is highly dependent on radar transmitted waveforms. In this paper, we consider the constant-modulus (CM) waveform optimization problem to improve HRR profiling performance for stationary targets. Firstly, several fundamental bounds regarding the profiling ambiguity, stability, and accuracy are derived. Further investigation reveals that the stability and accuracy of HRR profiling are unified in the white noise case. Aimed at improving the profiling stability and accuracy, we design two types of CM radar waveforms—the arbitrary-phase and QPSK waveforms—through a customized Gaussian randomization method. The performance of LFM waveforms is also discussed. Numerical experiments show that the optimized CM waveforms can dramatically enhance the profiling performance over the unoptimized ones.