Accuracy of linearized performance predictions for wavefront curvature ranging systems

Conventional analyses of the performance of wavefront curvature ranging systems employ Cramer-Rao, or linearized, formalisms to predict range estimate variance. This study employs high-order techniques - the Bhattacharyya bound - and accounts for estimate bias in order to obtain a more accurate expression for range estimate error. The point at which this error expression diverges from the Cramer-Rao bound is identified.