Sampling losses in radar signal detection

The aim of this paper is to exactly evaluate the detection losses due to the sampling of a video pulse, in order to allow a trade-off between sensitivity and A/D converter speed. Both single-threshold detection (after coherent integration) and double threshold binary integration (moving window) are considered. The former case is analysed for both fixed and fluctuating targets. The largest sampling losses are found to occur for single threshold detection, fixed targets and large values (0.9¿0.95) of the detection probability. For a sampling period equal to the pulsewidth 7the losses range between 2.5 dB and 3 dB. On decreasing the sampling interval the losses quickly reduce: when two samples per pulse are taken, the losses are very close to 0.5 dB. The main application is in the radar area.