On Array Calibration Technique for Multipath Reference Waves

High resolution direction-of-arrival (DOA) estimation algorithm for array antennas becomes popular in these days. However, there are several error factors such as mutual coupling among the elements in actual array. Hence array calibration is indispensable to realize intrinsic performance of the algorithm. In the many applications, it is preferable that the calibration can be done in the practical environment in operation. In such a case, the incident wave becomes coherent multipath wave. Calibration of array in the multipath environment is a hard problem, even when DOA of elementary waves is known. To realize array calibration in the multipath environment will be useful for some applications even if reference signals are required. In this report, we consider property of reference waves in the multipath environment and derive a new calibration technique by using the multipath coherent reference waves. The reference wave depends on not only the DOA but also complex amplitude of each elementary wave. However, the proposed technique depends on the DOA only. This is the main advantage of the technique. Simulation results confirm the effectiveness of the proposed technique. key words: array antenna, array calibration, direction-of-arrival estimation, subspace technique, multipath reference wave