OFDM Chirp Waveform Design Based on Subchirp Bandwidth Overlap and Segmented Transmitting for Low Correlation Interference in MIMO Radar

There are some special merits for the orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) chirp waveform as multiple input multiple output (MIMO) signals. This signal has high range resolution, good Doppler tolerance, and constant modulus superiority since it exploits a full bandwidth and is based on chirp signals. The correlation sidelobe peaks level are critical for the detection requirement of MIMO radar signals, however conventional OFDM chirp signals produce high autocorrelation sidelobe peaks (ASP) and cross-correlation peaks (CP), which reduces detection performance. In this paper, we explore the structure of OFDM chirp signals’ autocorrelation function and proposed a scheme to reduce the designed signal’s ASP by a designing suitable range of subchirp bandwidth and a segmented transmit-receive mode. Next, we explore a suitable range of interval between the chirp rates of each two signals to reduce the CP. The simulation of designed signals verifies the effectiveness of the proposed methods in the reduction of ASP and CP, with the correlation performance being compared with recent relate studies. In addition, the multiple signals detection and one-dimensional range image simulation show the good detection performance of a designed signal in MIMO radar detection.