Broadband performance of superdirective delay-and-sum beamformers steered to end-fire.

Abstract

Linear arrays steered to end-fire provide superdirective robust performance if a constraint is imposed on the white-noise gain. Filter-and-sum beamformers achieve the maximum constrained directivity by tuning their complex weights over the frequency. Delay-and-sum beamformers have simpler structures, but their weights are fixed and optimized at a given frequency. This letter investigates the constrained directivity provided over a broad band by different delay-and-sum techniques. Complex weights and analytic signals attain near-optimal broadband performance over four octaves. Oversteered arrays using real weights and signals were found to attain superdirective performance over approximately two octaves. Hearing aids and directional hydrophones are potential applications for the considered arrays.