Implementation of Beamforming Techniques Adapted to Realistic Microstrip Linear Antenna Arrays

Description

Most of the beamforming techniques applied so far to antenna arrays make estimations on a theoretical basis concerning the main lobe direction and the directions of the radiation pattern nulls, because they treat the antenna array factor as the total radiation pattern without regarding the actual non-isotropic radiation pattern of the array elements and the mutual coupling between them, which both take place in reality. The present study introduces an effective modification of two popular beamforming techniques to be applied for the synthesis of current distribution for realistic microstrip linear antenna arrays. These inverse problem techniques are the minimum variance distortionless response method and the null steering beamforming method. In both methods, the actual radiation pattern of the microstrip elements and the mutual coupling between them are taken into account. The methods are tested in several scenarios, where
one desired and one or more undesired (interference) signals are received from various directions of arrival (DoA) by a microstrip linear antenna array. A statistical analysis is applied in each scenario concerning the divergence of the main lobe direction from DoA of the desired signal, as well as the direction divergence of the nulls from DoA of the respective interference signals. The analysis results demonstrate the robustness of the modified beamforming techniques as well as the validity of the proposed modification.

Period	17 Jul 2019
Held at	22nd International Conference on the Computation of Electromagnetic Fields
Event type	Conference
Location	Paris, France
Degree of Recognition	International