To reduce the probability of radar radiation signals being detected by enemy passive detection systems, this paper proposes a low-intercept radar waveform design method that employs phase and frequency joint coding. The method utilizes complementary two-phase codes and chaotic sequences to encode the phase and frequency within the pulse based on linear frequency modulation signals. Numerical simulation results show that the designed waveform exhibits pseudo-randomness in the time-frequency domain and improves the low-identification performance. The signal has a very low peak side lobe level after pulse compression, which demonstrates excellent low intercept performance. Its three-dimensional ambiguity function graph shows an ideal "peg shape" with good distance and speed resolution and anti-interference characteristics.
无源探测系统凭借单路程测距的优势,其最大侦测距离已远大于一般的雷达系统,现代雷达对于提高射频隐身能力的需求日益增加。射频隐身技术也被称为低截获概率(Low probability of interception,LPI)技术或者有源目标特征减缩技术[1],该技术是指通过各种手段,使搭载于机载或车载平台的雷达、通信等电子设备的射频信号特征降到最小,造成敌方电子侦察系统不能及时发现和定位辐射源[2]。
目前,对于射频隐身波形设计的研究主要集中于复合信号波形设计、参数随机化信号波形设计以及基于优化算法的信号波形设计3个方面。针对基于复合信号的射频隐身波形设计,文献[3]提出了一种脉间Costas频率编码、脉内非线性调频的复合信号。然而,该信号具有较高的峰值旁瓣电平(Peak side lobe level,PSLL)。文献[4]提出了锯齿形线性调频和伪码调相的复合信号。然而,这种信号容易被敌方无源侦测系统截获。针对基于参数随机化的射频隐身波形设计,文献[5]提出了一种合成类似于噪声信号的方法,但该方法对计算复杂度和硬件具有一定要求。针对基于优化算法的射频隐身波形设计,文献[6]以实现LPI的同时保持雷达检测性能为目标,建立了与优化目标相对应的非凸四次优化问题。文献[7]考虑发射波形和接收波束成形的联合设计,以最大化输出信号与干扰加噪声之比,同时以控制目标区域的发射功率为目标,建立了非凸优化问题。但是,这类基于优化算法的射频隐身波形设计技术存在着难以准确地对问题进行建模以及难以在多项式时间内求得最优解的问题。
针对上述问题,本文提出了一种基于线性调频(Linear frequency modulation,LFM)信号的互补相位与离散混沌频率联合编码的LPI雷达波形设计方法。本文主要贡献如下:①将混沌思想引入波形设计中,增强了波形的LPI性能。量化后的混沌序列被用于频率调制过程,一方面增强了信号的伪随机性,另一方面得益于混沌序列的初值敏感性,信号的捷变能力也得到提升;②将互补码技术运用到LPI波形设计中,有效降低了信号的PSLL。得益于互补码自相关函数的正交特性,通过交替发送由互补码调相的脉冲,并在接收端进行特殊处理,提高了信号的检测、跟踪能力;③利用频率、相位联合编码技术,在改善雷达LPI性能的同时,探测性能也得到提升。本文所设计波形有效解决了相位编码信号的多普勒敏感问题和LFM信号的距离-多普勒耦合问题,提升了雷达探测性能。
图5分析了LFM信号、线性调频-互补相位编码(Linear frequency modulation-complementary phase coding,LFM-CPC)信号、LFM-CPC-DCFC信号的频谱特性。从图5(b)中可以看出,由于采用了互补码相位调制的原因,LFM-CPC信号相比于图5(a)中的LFM信号产生了许多的“毛刺”,增加了其在频域上的复杂性,然而LFM-CPC信号却依然保留了LFM信号的基本形式。图5(c)为LFM-CPC-DCFC联合编码信号的频谱特性,可以看出,在利用DCFC码字序列对LFM-CPC信号进行频率调制后,信号已经完全失去了LFM信号的频谱形状,并且信号带宽也得到了展宽。这意味着当敌方无源探测系统接收到该信号时,难以对其进行长时间的积累,从而会更容易将信号识别为噪声,因此提高了雷达信号的LPI性能。
4.2 信号时频域分析
现代的电子支援措施(Electronic support measure,ESM)系统除了能够分析截获信号的频谱信息,还能够产生截获信号的时频域分布图[16]。因此,ESM系统能够很轻易地截获LFM信号及其变体非线性调频(Nonlinear frequency modulation,NLFM)信号,即LPI雷达信号[5]。研究信号的时频域分布特性也是检验信号LPI性能的重要方法之一,而短时傅里叶变换(Short-time Fourier transform,STFT)则是一种常用的对信号进行时频域分析的工具。
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