Minimum redundancy MIMO radars

The multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) radar concept has drawn considerable attention recently. In the traditional single-input multiple-output (SIMO) radar system, the transmitter emits scaled versions of a single waveform. However, in the MIMO radar system, the transmitter transmits independent waveforms. It has been shown that the MIMO radar can be used to improve system performance. Most of the MIMO radar research so far has focused on the uniform array. However, it is in general a loss of optimality to assume the array to be uniform. In this paper, the nonuniform array design problem in the MIMO radar is studied. In the SIMO radar, it has been shown that there is a class of linear arrays which minimizes the number of redundant spacings in the array. These are called minimum redundancy linear arrays. It has been shown that this class of arrays has excellent performance in rejection of mainlobe interferences. In this paper, the idea of minimum redundancy linear array is extended to the MIMO radar case. The numerical examples show that the proposed minimum redundancy MIMO radar results in improved rejection of mainlobe interferences, with negligible degradation in sidelobe interference rejection capabilities.