Local instantaneous frequency estimation of multi-component signals

We present a method for estimating the instantaneous frequency (IF) of multi-component signals. This method involves the calculation of a time–frequency energy density of the signal, then obtaining a local IF estimate from this joint density. Time–frequency energy density is calculated as a least squares optimal combination of multi-window Gabor based evolutionary spectra. The optimal weights are obtained by minimizing an error criterion that is the difference between a reference time–frequency distribution and the combination of evolutionary spectra. IF of the signal components is estimated from the final evolutionary spectrum at small time–frequency regions as the average of frequencies at each time. As such, local IF information of a multi-component signal can be estimated in the time–frequency plane.