Optimizing the Design and Operation of Radar and Antenna Systems in MATLAB

Multifunction radar systems perform many tasks including search and track, classification of targets, communications, environmental assessments, and interference mitigation. Engineers designing these systems must deal with multiple design challenges:

• RF spectrum congestion: 5G applications are pushing wireless systems to utilize higher frequency bands, which causes interference challenges for radar applications.
• Resource allocation: Radar systems have limited resources (e.g., bandwidth, transmit energy/time budget, computational resources) that must be allocated to multiple tasks to achieve mission objectives.
• Physical design and cost constraints: For example, designers must minimize the antenna size while maintaining the impedance matching and maximizing the antenna gain.

In this talk, we explore how engineers can address these radar design challenges with automated design optimization workflows using the Optimization Toolbox™. We will cover several examples:

• Optimal beam pattern synthesis to null the power in the direction of interfering signals using Phased Array System Toolbox™
• Optimal resource allocation for a multisector surveillance radar using Radar Toolbox
• Antenna design optimization using Antenna Toolbox™