A new method of improving the weak target detection performance based on the MIMO radar

Based on the spatial diversity of the multiple input multiple output (MIMO) radar, a new method is presented to improve the detection performance of weak targets in clutter in this paper. First, the general spatial diversity condition is deduced. Accordingly, by selecting suitable MIMO radar spatial configuration, the target and clutter in a detection unit may be regarded as the non-fluctuating and the fluctuating components, respectively. Therefore, an effective method to exploit the spatial diversity to increase the signal-to-clutter-plus-noise ratio of the receiver is proposed. Compared to the conventional radar, it is shown that superior detection performance may be obtained with the proposed method, especially for the weak target in clutter. Finally, detailed numerical experiments are also provided to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.