An effective method for designing near-field MIMO array

The three-dimensional (3-D) imaging technique based on array antenna is an important way to achieve a 3-D image. However, conventional imaging radar system requires a large number of antenna elements. Both the cost and complexity of the system are increased. This paper refers to the principle of MIMO radar and introduces a near-filed optimization method for sparse array designing based on the equivalent phase center principle and convolution principle. Using the method introduced in this paper, the array can use less real elements to get unambiguous image. Simulations are provided to demonstrate the performance of the proposed method, which proves that it is an effective way to solve the near-field sparse array designing problem.