ICA-based phase-comparison monopulse technique for accurate angle estimation of multiple targets

When multiple targets are located in the same antenna beam, angle measurements using monopulse technique are degraded due to mutual interference caused by overlap among the signals from multiple targets, even though the targets are measured as individual targets by the radar. If multiple targets are closely spaced within a few resolution cells, their mutual interference becomes significant, resulting in both a large loss in detection performance and poor accuracy in angle estimation. To solve this, the authors propose a novel scheme to improve the accuracy of the angle estimation of multiple targets by combining the independent component analysis (ICA) and the phase-comparison monopulse technique.