| Summary: | In a conventional phased array radar system (PAR), a transmit beam is slowly steered through a sector to illuminate targets sequentially, leaving the radar blind to threats when the transmit beam is pointed in other directions. On the other, multiple input, multiple output (MIMO) radar systems transmit orthogonal waveforms from each antenna element to illuminate the entire field of view (FOV) of the radar simultaneously, providing uninterrupted situational awareness. However, MIMO radar systems are more challenging to implement because of the added orthogonality requirements between its channels and the drastic increase in the required digital signal processing. This paper uses commercially-available cutting-edge software-defined radios (SDRs) to build a reconfigurable 8 × 8 MIMO radar with a 64-element virtual array operating in C-band (NATO G-band). Measurements indicate that the radar can detect and localize multiple targets in all 3-dimensions, including bearing, range, and Doppler, with an angular resolution of 5.5 and a range resolution of 0.9 m. The MIMO radar operates in real-time with a refresh rate of only 3 s and can switch between TDM and CDM multiplexing modes.
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