Effects of Modulation Nonlinearity on the Range Response of FM Radars

The effect of modulation nonlinearity on the range response of FM radars with harmonic processing and ¿triangle¿ modulation is derived. The nonlinearity may be desirable or undesirable; that is, the sidelobe level of the range response may be decreased or increased depending on the shape and amount of nonlinearity. The results of this paper may be used to predict the actual range laws of existing ¿linear¿ FM radars; or, alternately, to specify the desired amount of modulation nonlinearity for new FM radars so that superior sidelobe suppression can be realized.