Distortion Modeling and Compensation in Step Frequency Radars

Nonideal behavior of ultra wideband (UWE) step frequency radars cause artifacts in the received signal. Several such artifacts are represented by a linear, frequency domain model presented here. The model includes both spurious frequencies, linear distortion, oscillator leakage, and crosstalk between the transmitter and receiver as well as IQ imbalance. A class of compensation methods based on this model using parameter estimation from calibration measurements is suggested. These compensation methods represent a generalization of a well-known approach for equalization of linear distortion in step frequency radars and have been tried out and confirmed by laboratory tests.