A high-precision 2D DOA estimation algorithm by a large-space three-parallel array for reducing mutual coupling

Abstract

In this paper, a high-precision two-dimensional (2D) direction of arrival (DOA) estimation algorithm by three parallel uniform linear arrays (ULAs) is proposed. Both the internal spacing of each sub-array and the spacing between two adjacent sub-arrays can exceed the half-wavelength of incident signal. An extended propagator method (PM) algorithm is introduced to obtain a multiple extended propagator matrix by processing the covariance matrix of received signals. Then, by using the extended propagator matrix, unambiguous and high-precision 2D DOA estimation can be obtained without extra pairing process. For the proposed array construction, mutual coupling effect can be ignored as long as the element interval is large enough. The extended PM algorithm based on the proposed array has far higher precision than the existing similar algorithms, which can be proved by some simulation experiments.