<title>Estimation of angle of arrival for wideband and coherent signals</title>

Abstract

For angle of arrival (AOA), angle resolution and classification of coherent and non-coherent wideband signals will be major problems, especially under the electronic warfare environment. Several methods have been considered for the estimation of the AOA. Multiple signal classification (MUSIC) is one of new suitable methods. But, the method has a disadvantage that it is impossible to estimate the AOA, if the inputs include coherent signal sources such as multipath. In this paper, the array antenna is constructed by some sub-array antennas. The elements of a sub-array antenna are arranged with non-equispace for the classification of noncoherent signals over wideband and some sub-array antennas are also arranged at non-equal distances for the rejection of the angle ambiguity of coherent signals. We applied MUSIC with a spatial smoothing to the array antenna and study how to reject the ambiguity and how to reduce the sidelobe level by using computer simulations. We also make experiments in anechoic chamber to confirm the simulation results. We then indicate that the spatial smoothing of sub-arrays with non-equispace removes the ambiguity of AOA and the classification of coherent signals and noncoherent signals over 8-18GHz is possible.