Cramer–Rao bound of parameters estimation and coherence performance for next generation radar

In this study, a general signal‐processing architecture is proposed for next generation radar (NGR). When the NGR works in MIMO mode, we derive the closed‐form Cramer–Rao bound of the estimation of coherent‐processing parameters, which include the time‐delay differences and phase synchronisation errors among different apertures. When the NGR turns to work in fully coherent mode, assuming the time‐delay differences are ideally compensated, the authors present the closed‐form signal‐to‐noise ratio (SNR) gain and analyse the SNR gain loss of the NGR because of inaccurate phase synchronisation errors.