Adaptive Mutual Coupling Compensation Method for Airborne STAP Radar With End-Fire Array

Abstract

Because the maximum radiation direction of the end-fire array antenna points to the axis of the array and the small element spacing required to suppress the grating lobes, the mutual coupling effect between the arrays is more serious than that of the broadside array. The article first established the end-fire array antenna pattern model and clutter signal model with the effect of mutual coupling. The clutter signal model includes two cases, ideal mutual coupling effect and mutual coupling error. On this basis, we take a ten-element uniform linear array using CST Microwave Studio to validate our model. Then we analyze the clutter distribution characteristics of the end-fire array airborne radar and the effect of mismatch on the spatial steering vector. Finally, an adaptive mutual coupling compensation method based on covariance matrix reconstruction is proposed. In general, clutter suppression methods with end-fire array take no account of the mutual coupling error changing over time, but the proposed method first adaptively estimates the mutual coupling error based on the airborne radar echo data and uses the estimated normalized impedance matrix to compensate the spatial steering vector, then combines the system parameters to construct the clutter covariance matrix. The simulations indicate that this method accurately estimate the impedance matrix, and it eliminates the clutter power reduction and spatial steering vector mismatch caused by mutual coupling error. Moreover, it also solves the serious non-stationary clutter problem of the end-fire array airborne radar.