Two-Dimensional Transmit Beampattern Design via Majorization-Minimization for MIMO Radar

In this paper, we deal with the problem of designing the two-dimensional (2D) transmit beampattern with multiple mainlobes for multiple-input multiple-output radar system. The method is to focus the transmit energy within sectors of interest by narrowing the maximum absolute difference between a desired 2D transmit beampattern and the designed beampattern. To this end, we formulate the non-convex minimization-maximization optimization while satisfying uniform transmit power distribution constraint. One of our main contributions lies in exploring the inherent algebraic of the objective and introducing selection matrices to reformulate it into a form that allows to use the majorization-minimization (MM) technique. By applying MM scheme and semi-definite programming with rank-one decomposition, we then develop an effective algorithm which iterates by solving a simple convex problem. Simulation results show that the beampattern generated by the proposed algorithm has lower sidelobes, more flat mainlobes and better performances of direction of arrival estimation such as lower root mean square error and higher probability of target resolution compared with the existing algorithm.