MIMO-OFDM Chirp Waveform Diversity Design and Implementation Based on Sparse Matrix and Correlation Optimization

The waveforms used in Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO) Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) should have a large time-bandwidth product and good ambiguity function performance. A scheme to design multiple orthogonal MIMO SAR Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) chirp waveforms by combinational sparse matrix and correlation optimization is proposed. First, the problem of MIMO SAR waveform design amounts to the associated design of hopping frequency and amplitudes. Then a iterative exhaustive search algorithm is adopted to optimally design the code matrix with the constraints minimizing the block correlation coefficient of sparse matrix and the sum of cross-correlation peaks. And the amplitudes matrix are adaptively designed by minimizing the cross-correlation peaks with the genetic algorithm. Additionally, the impacts of waveform number, hopping frequency interval and selectable frequency index are also analyzed. The simulation results verify the proposed scheme can design multiple orthogonal large time-bandwidth product OFDM chirp waveforms with low cross-correlation peak and sidelobes and it improves ambiguity performance