Multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) radar is a new concept with some new characteristics, such as multiple orthogonal waveforms and omnidirectional coverage. Based on Stein’s lemma, we use relative entropy as a precise and general measure of error exponent to study detection performance for both MIMO radar and phased array radar. And based on derived analytical results, we further study the system configuration problem of Bistatic MIMO radar systems, where transmitters and receivers are located in different positions. Some interesting results are presented. For phased array radar, when the total numbers of transmitters and receivers are fixed, we should alwaysmake the number of transmitters equal to the number of receivers. For MIMO radar, we should use a small number of transmitters in low signal noise ratio (SNR) region, and make the number of transmitters equal to the number of receivers in high SNR region. These results are instructive for deployment of bistatic MIMO radar systems in the future.