MIMO radar performance in clutter: Limitations imposed by bounds on the volume and height distributions for the MIMO radar ambiguity function

In multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) radar, the efficiency of target detection in clutter that is distributed over a certain range bin-Doppler frequency region depends on the sidelobe level of the waveformspsila auto- and cross-ambiguity functions within this region. We introduce the MIMO ambiguity function as the sum of all auto- and cross-ambiguity functions of the K MIMO radar waveforms, with the integral of this function over some range-Doppler region serving as a measure of the orthogonality (separability) of the waveforms within this region of interest. We derive an upper bound on the attainable ldquoclear areardquo for the MIMO ambiguity function, and show that, with respect to the conventional single-waveform ambiguity function, the maximum clear area is K times smaller for the MIMO system.