What Is Radar System Design?

Radar system design is a complex process that relies on simulation and analysis over a design space spanning the digital, analog, RF, and data processing domains. These domains extend across the complete signal chain, from the antenna array, to radar signal processing algorithms, to data processing and control. The resulting system-level complexity drives the need for modeling and simulation at all stages of the development cycle.

Modeling and simulation tools can improve all aspects of the radar system design workflow. Using MATLAB^® and Simulink^® as a platform for radar system design, you can:

• Select radar parameters, design waveforms and sensor arrays interactively, and explore trade-offs with the radar range equation and link budget
• Accelerate development with libraries of algorithms such as matched filtering, adaptive beamforming, target detection, space-time adaptive processing, environmental and clutter modeling, and direction of arrival estimation
• Model scenes and scenarios including the dynamics of ground-based, airborne, ship-borne, space-based, or automotive radar systems with moving targets and radar platforms
• Design multifunction phased array systems and analyze their performance under different scenarios using realistic synthetic datasets
• Label radar signals and simulate radar data to train machine and deep learning models for target and signal classification applications
• Integrate models for RF components and complex antenna designs to increase the level of radar system design fidelity
• Debug and test complete radar models at the earliest stages of the project to reduce costly redesign risks
• Automatically generate code from MATLAB and Simulink models for deployment to DSP and field-programmable gate array hardware

For more details, see Radar Toolbox, Phased Array System Toolbox™, Sensor Fusion and Tracking Toolbox™, Radar Solutions for Aerospace and Defense