Transmitter polarization optimization with polarimetric MIMO radar for mainlobe interference suppression

Abstract

Polarization diverse design of the transmit waveforms based on the property of the target scattering matrix provides better performance than transmitting waveforms with fixed polarizations, especially for mainlobe interference suppression applications. In this work, we propose a radar system combines the advantages of multiple-input–multiple-output (MIMO) systems with the advantages offered by optimally choosing the transmitter polarizations, in order to achieve a better mainlobe interference suppression performance. The polarization diversity is employed in the transmit array, while the receive array adopts 2-D vector sensors to measure the horizontal and vertical components of the received signal. The optimal transmitter polarizations can be obtained by maximizing the output signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR) in each coherent processing interval (CPI). In addition, the discrimination method for the target and the interference is studied in this paper, along with the target scattering matrix estimation method. Simulation results demonstrate that interference can be effectively discriminated and suppressed with the radar configuration, and better interference suppression performance is achieved with the optimal transmitter polarizations.