A flexible mathematical framework for adaptive wireless communication waveform design is of importance for the implement of the cognitive radio-based software defined radio (CR-based SDR). As one of the popular models, the "spectrally modulated spectrally encoded" (SMSE) was proposed to tackle this problem but it cannot be trivially applied to the (massive) multiple input multiple output (MIMO) systems. In this paper, we extend the useful SMSE model into MIMO systems. Inspired by the tensor technique in signal processing and machine learning, we reformulate the desired waveforms as a higher-order tensors, of which the modes correspond to various modulation parameters such as coding chips, frequency and antennas. Beside the waveform design model, we further propose a new semi-blind receiver for the new model. Due the uniqueness of the applied tensor decomposition, we proved that the proposed receiver can jointly estimate the user symbols and channel state information without the aid of pilot sequences. Experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed model in various communication scenes and outperforms the baseline systems. approximately 3 dB compared with the ideal receiver. Index Terms-Waveform design, semi-blind receiver, multiple input multiple output (MIMO) system, PARAFAC model, TUCKER-1 model. I. INTRODUCTION C OGNITIVE radio (CR) is an extension of software defined radio (SDR) [1]. It is widely used in military and commercial communications such as next generation networks [2], dynamic spectrum access [3], the IEEE 802.22 standard [4], and multiple input multiple output (MIMO) systems [5]. MIMO has been regarded as a promising technology for the nextgeneration wireless communications [6]. As shown in Fig. 1, a typical cognitive cycle is composed of four aspects: spectrum sensing, spectrum analysis, spectrum decision, and waveform framework. Spectrum decision determines the reconfigurable parameters such as data rate, operating frequency, modulation