Investigation of the Performance of Frequency Diverse Array Radar Using FDTD Method

초록

We propose employing a finite difference time domain (FDTD) method to fully understand the performance of frequency diverse array (FDA) radar in terms of energy propagation, clutter interference, Doppler shift, direction of arrival (DOA) estimation, and effect of ground plane. Unlike a phased array, FDA radar is claimed to be able to concentrate beams not only in angles but also in distance. Despite numerous studies on various frequency offsets to implement time-invariant beam and enhance the localization performance of FDA, several technical aspects remain unclear. Therefore, it is necessary to examine the propagation performance of FDA through FDTD simulations because the theoretical array factor (AF) has limitations in the case of nonhomogeneous media. This research investigates the performance of the FDA by examining wave propagation characteristics, feasibility of time-invariant beam, clutter impacts, Doppler shifts of a moving target, DOA estimation using a super-resolution algorithm, and impacts of the ground plane. The FDTD method was applied to solve Maxwell's equations on a grid at each time step, enabling the observation of wave characteristics. FDA sources, clutters, and ground plane were implemented in FDTD, and their propagation properties were investigated.

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