Target polarization scattering matrix estimation with conformal MIMO radar

Abstract

Conformal multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) radar is a wide generation of conventional MIMO radar and it uses multiple antennas of different polarization transmit beampatterns for a larger aperture and better performance of target scattering measurement. In this paper, we develop a signal processing algorithm for conformal MIMO radar. According to Least Square (LS) criterion and Maximum Likelihood (ML) criterion, the target Sinclair matrix is estimated. Both unbiased but the ML estimator can achieve the Cramer–Rao bound. The radar polarization measurement capability is evaluated by the rank of Fisher information matrix (FIM). Numerical results with a three-dimensional transmit beampattern of a conformal antennas array show the estimation performance in theory measured by the root mean square error (RMSE).