A Novel Multi-Dimensional Spectrum Estimation Technique using Antenna Array Displacement

Abstract

Conventionally, in multi-dimensional spectral estimation techniques, each data snapshot in space is captured simultaneously. All antenna elements or sensors being used to collect data are sampled at the same time. By doing so, the size of the antenna array is proportional to the area of interest in space. The antenna array is prohibitively huge if the area that we want to cover is large. In this paper, in order to reduce the number of antenna elements in use, we propose a novel multi-dimensional spectrum estimation technique based on displacing small antenna arrays along predefined paths. It includes a data measurement technique which sequentially collects data samples within each snapshot in space according to a predefined order, and a spectral estimation technique which is based on the Discrete Fourier Transform (DFT) of the collected data. The key idea is to create a large synthetic antenna aperture by displacing a small antenna array along a predefined trajectory. Impinging waves are assumed uniform plane waves. The performance of the proposed technique is evaluated by simulation. The applications of the proposed technique include synthetic aperture radar, radar image processing and sonar systems.