On the performance of a CFAR matched filter in the presence of signal mismatch

Jun Liu, Hongwei Liu

Abstract: We analytically evaluate the impact of a mismatch in the signal steering vector on the detection performance of a constant false alarm rate matched filter (CFAR-MF) in white Gaussian noise with unknown noise power. An infinite-sum expression for the detection probability of the CFAR-MF is derived in the mismatched case where the nominal signal steering vector is not aligned with the actual one. This theoretical result is verified using Monte Carlo simulations.