A Study on Linear Frequency Modulation Signal Transmission by 4-D Antenna Arrays

This paper presents a study on linear frequency modulation (LFM) pulsed signal transmission by four-dimensional (4-D) antenna arrays. LFM pulse is used as the input of 4-D antenna arrays and the influence brought by the periodic time modulation is analyzed. The relationship among pulse duration, chirp rate, sample frequency, time-modulation frequency, and propagation direction is analyzed and the restrictions to these parameters are highlighted. The transmitting and receiving structures are introduced and relevant signal processing steps are described. Numerical examples with several different time schemes, including the pulse shifting (PS) scheme and binary phase center motion (BPCM) scheme, are presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of the LFM signal transmission by 4-D arrays. Simulation results validate that original chirp signal can be correctly recovered and low sidelobe power patterns can be simultaneously achieved by 4-D antenna arrays, as long as the proposed limitations are satisfied.