Wigner distribution and FM radar signal design

The Wigner distribution is a bilinear distribution originally developed in the field of quantum mechanics. It has recently attracted considerable attention as a time-frequency distribution for use in signal processing. The properties of the Wigner distribution are reviewed and its relationship to other distributions, in particular the ambiguity function, is described. Wigner distributions for frequency-modulated pulse-compression radar signals are presented and the effect of Doppler shift is demonstrated. Its use in the design of radar signals is discussed. The Wigner distribution provides an elegant way of qualitatively describing the effects of Doppler shift in pulse-compression radar, but is unlikely to provide a basis for the design of frequency-modulated radar signals.