Radar Signal Processing Models

Modern civil and military analog-to-digital (A/D) radar systems are growing increasingly sophisticated as mission requirements, environmental conditions, and performance expectations evolve. These systems must operate across wide bandwidths and multiple frequency bands — including X, Ku, and Ka—while generating and processing intricate waveforms that reliably capture and interpret target information. To achieve this, designers rely on advanced Digital Signal Processing (DSP) techniques capable of suppressing clutter, mitigating interference, and extracting meaningful insights from complex returns. As radar system architectures advance, so does the need for highly realistic test environments and representative radar signals that accurately reflect real-world behavior.

Traditionally, radar developers have depended on dedicated hardware simulators and field-testing campaigns to create these signals and evaluate overall system performance. While effective, these methods are both expensive and time-consuming, often requiring specialized equipment, restricted test ranges, and extensive operational planning. More critically, they are typically utilized only in the later stages of development, when design flexibility is limited and corrective actions can be costly. This can extend development timelines and hinder iterative innovation at the algorithm and system levels.

This application note introduces a more efficient and flexible approach: the use of a digital-twin radar system to generate accurate radar signals and complete system-level scenarios early in the design process. By creating a virtual replica of the radar’s baseband and RF signal chain, designers can evaluate radar behavior under a wide variety of operational conditions — well before hardware becomes available. This enables earlier algorithm verification, accelerates system integration, and ensures consistency between simulated and tested performance over time.

Central to this methodology is the ability to model the radar’s baseband signal source with high fidelity. Achieving this accuracy is a foundational milestone in building trust in the virtual system. The application note showcases new features in the radar (A/D) library that significantly enhance this modeling capability. Improved rise and fall time modeling allows designers to more closely replicate real pulse shaping effects, including transient behaviors that influence detection and measurement precision. PRF staggering support adds the ability to simulate pulse repetition frequency patterns used to resolve range and velocity ambiguities, a key aspect of modern radar waveform design.

Additionally, the application note highlights a more flexible MATLAB-based pulse modeling workflow, enabling users to construct custom pulses and modulation schemes that match the needs of their application. Whether generating simple pulses or highly specialized waveforms, the enhanced modeling environment reduces complexity while improving signal realism. This empowers designers to prototype, iterate, and validate advanced processing algorithms—including clutter suppression, interference mitigation, target detection, and tracking — long before committing to hardware.

By combining realistic radar pulse behavior with customizable virtual scenario design, the digital-twin approach supports both algorithm development and hardware verification. It bridges the gap between simulation and real-world performance, offering a cost-effective alternative to traditional hardware-based methods. Ultimately, this application note provides radar system engineers with a practical framework for generating reliable, high-fidelity radar signals early in the development cycle — accelerating innovation, reducing risk, and improving overall system performance.