A power distribution scheme for correlated MIMO radar transmitters

MIMO (multiple-input multiple-output) radar systems with distributed transmitters and receivers have potential to significantly improve the performance of radar systems. MIMO systems benefit by utilizing the notion of spatial diversity as the receivers have the ability to observe incoming echos originating off various aspect angles. This capability is however dependent upon the fact that the antennas are not correlated with each others which can diminish the diversity gain. This article attempts to improve correlated MIMO system performance by proposing a power distribution algorithm which weights the antennas taking account of any correlation present at the emitters. Antennas who show strong correlations transmit pulses with less power so that the total available energy is spread across diversity branches more befittingly. Simulations are used to validate the results.