Reactance domain MUSIC algorithm for electronically steerable parasitic array radiator

Conventional adaptive array antenna processing must observe signals on all of the array antenna elements. However, because the low-cost electronically steerable parasitic array radiator (ESPAR) antenna has only a single-port output, none of the signals on the antenna's parasitic elements can be observed. A direct application of most of the algorithms for the conventional adaptive array antenna is impractical. In this paper, a new technique of estimation of direction-of-arrivals (DoAs) is proposed for the ESPAR antenna. This technique is based on the modified MUltiple SIgnal Classification (MUSIC) algorithm. The correlation matrix used in the MUSIC algorithm is estimated from the signal received through the single-port output of the ESPAR antenna as it switches over a set of antenna patterns. Simulation results show that DoAs can be estimated by the reactance domain MUSIC algorithm for ESPAR antennas. Furthermore, the statistical performance on estimation error variance of the reactance domain MUSIC estimator is analyzed and compared with the Cramer-Rao lower bound. Analytic and empirical results show that high-resolution DoAs estimation can be achieved by using the reactance domain MUSIC algorithm for ESPAR antennas.