Computationally efficient range profile synthesis method based on zero-padding inverse discrete Fourier transform for random stepped frequency radar

Abstract

The modulation frequencies of random stepped frequency radars are randomly distributed over the expected specific bandwidth. The characteristics of random modulation frequencies make it difficult to synthesize the high-resolution range profile fleetly. A zero-padding inverse discrete Fourier transform method is proposed to address the problem. Theoretical analysis shows that the proposed method has the same signal-to-noise ratio improvement performance as the classical methods, but relatively lower computational complexity. The experimental results validate the effectiveness and efficiency of the proposed method.