Exploiting Reconfigurable Intelligent Surfaces in MIMO Radar Detection

This paper considers the problem of target detection in a multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) radar aided by two reconfigurable intelligent surfaces (RISs), one close to the transmitter and one close to the receiver. A novel signal model is first introduced, subsuming both mono- and bi-static configurations. Upon resorting to a generalized likelihood ratio test (GLRT), the RISs are then designed to maximize the probability of detection for a fixed probability of false alarm. Finally, we assess the benefits of this architecture and study the interplay among the radar-RIS distance, the RIS size, and the target location