Abstract:

The combined effects of mutual coupling and amplitude-phase errors have negative impact on the
direction-finding performance of the MUSIC algorithm. In this work, we calibrate array errors induced by the mutual
coupling effect and amplitude-phase errors. Three algorithms are presented, which have the same computational
mode and theoretical framework, and provide optimal closed-form solutions to the array error matrix based on the
eigenvector of the Hermite matrix corresponding to the smallest eigenvalue. The first algorithm does not make
use of any property of the array error matrix, the second uses sparseness of the array error matrix, and the third
makes fully use of the special structure of the array error matrix for some regular arrays. Performances of parameter
estimation of the three algorithms are compared by simulation. The results show that the calibration precision of
array error matrix can be improved if the algorithm uses more special properties of the array error matrix.

Key words: array calibration, mutual coupling, amplitude-phase errors, eigenvector, closed-form solution