The detection performance for some cases of multiplicative radar signal processing

The detection performance for four typical cases of multiplicative radar signal processing is determined and a comparison is made with similar cases using linear addition. Both i.f. multiplication as it might be used in multiplicative arrays and video multiplication as used in radar diversity combiners are considered for non-fading and Rayleigh-fading signal amplitudes. In most of the cases considered the losses introduced by the use of multiplicative processing are quite small. Exceptions are when signals of significantly different signal/noise ratios, or equal-frequency i.f. signals of random relative phase are multiplied together.