Performance indications of a novel chaotic-signal FM-CW radar for multi-user applications

Emerging requirements for several radar applications call for highly-specialised signal processing algorithms displaying good multi-user capability. This paper presents some results of tests and measurements from an experimental chaotic-signal radar (CSR) test bed where a novel, yet simple, signal-processing algorithm, called implicit sampling averaging has been implemented. The CSR has a very large processing gain and hence provides high resistance to external noise and interference. Furthermore, it is also highly resistant to mutual interference from similar systems, since the random or chaotic-signal generator in each system produces a unique signal. As an initial verification of the theory, a standard 77 GHz FM-CW radar receiver was specially adapted to facilitate the novel CSR scheme. A digitising oscilloscope was used as a signal processor for reconstructing and visualising the characteristic bipolar waveform (so-called S-curve) indicating the obstacle position. First results agree well with theory and stimulate further development of this new approach.