Optimum Partitioning of a Phased-MIMO Radar Array Antenna

In a phased-multiple-input–multiple-output radar, the transmit antenna array is divided into multiple subarrays that are allowed to be overlapped. In this letter, a mathematical formula for optimum partitioning scheme is derived to determine the optimum division of an array into subarrays and number of elements in each subarray. The main concept of this new scheme is to place the transmit beam pattern nulls at the diversity beam pattern peak sidelobes and place the diversity beam pattern nulls at the transmit beam pattern peak sidelobes. This is compared to other equal and unequal schemes. It is shown that the main advantage of this optimum partitioning scheme is the improvement of the main-to-sidelobe levels without reduction in beam pattern directivity. Also, signal-to-noise ratio is improved using this optimum partitioning scheme.