Pulse width estimation of multi-component chirp signal based on integration decomposition of fractional Fourier transform

Signal parameter estimation is a common process in the sphere of radar signal processing. For the widely used chirp signal, the estimation of pulse width is essential in applications of signal reconnaissance, passive radar, anti-jamming, and others. An efficient pulse width estimation method for multi-component chirp signal is proposed. Different from the conventional pulse width estimation methods based on short-time time-frequency analysis, the proposed method extracts the time-varying signal feature via integration decomposition. In the proposed method, the amplitude history (AH) curve, which presents the temporal distribution of signal energy, is generated based on the intermediate data of the fractional Fourier transform integration. Then a detector is provided to locate the start and end positions of the chirp signal component in the AH curve. Monte Carlo experiments under different conditions verify the noise robustness and computational efficiency of the proposed method. In general, the proposed method provides a new perspective for extracting the time-varying feature of the signal component, and it is a useful reference for future investigations concerning integration decomposition.