Orthogonal discrete frequency-coding waveform design based on modified genetic algorithm for MIMO-SAR

A multi-input multi-output (MIMO) radar can be used to form a synthetic aperture for high resolution imaging. To successfully utilize the MIMO synthetic aperture radar (SAR) system for practical imaging application, the orthogonal waveform design plays a critical role in image formation. Focusing on the SAR application, a definition for synthetic integrated side-lobe level ratio (ISLR) is proposed. In this paper a cost function containing ISLR and peak side-lobe level ratio (PSLR) is presented. A modified genetic algorithm (GA) is proposed to numerically search optimal frequency firing order for discrete frequency-coding waveform (DFCW). Some of the designed results are presented. The obtained waveform can be implemented for MIMO-SAR systems to improve the image contrast.