Processing and Resolution Losses Due to Range Cell Migration—Application to Automotive Radar

Range and Doppler estimation assume a stationary signal model, enabling pulse compression and Doppler processing in fast and slow‐time, respectively. Waveforms with large time‐bandwidth products focus energy within a single range cell, enhancing resolution. Achieving fine Doppler resolution requires a long coherent processing interval (CPI), which, in high‐resolution systems, results in a large CPI‐bandwidth product. Consequently, targets may cross multiple range cells during the CPI. Although several compensation methods exist to refocus the smeared energy, the impact of Range Cell Migration (RCM) on the performance of pulse compression and Doppler processing has not been comprehensively assessed. This work develops theoretical signal models that include RCM effects for both pulse radar and frequency modulated continuous wave (FMCW) systems, and the resulting processing and resolution losses are computed numerically, with a particular focus on the influence of windowing techniques. The study quantitatively evaluates these effects for both phase‐coded waveforms used in phase‐modulated continuous‐wave (PMCW) systems and linearly frequency‐modulated (LFM) waveforms processed through matched filtering or dechirping, as in FMCW radars.