Design and characteristic analysis of hybrid OFD–LFM–PC waveforms in the MIMO radar

In this study, a new set of hybrid orthogonal frequency division–linear frequency modulation–phase coded (OFD–LFM–PC) waveforms are proposed to improve the detection performance of multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) radars. In the time domain, the inherent sidelobe properties of the spatial synthesised signal of the hybrid OFD–LFM–PC waveforms are analysed. In the space domain, the transmitting power pattern of the designed waveforms is derived. The influence of the modulated PC sequences on the temporal and spatial properties of the proposed waveforms is also studied. The proposed waveforms can suppress the temporal sidelobes greatly and obtain almost omnidirectional transmitting power pattern which is preferred for target detection in wide area. Simulations demonstrate the superiority of the proposed waveforms over the commonly used OFD–LFM waveforms.