Sensor Gain-Phase Error and Position Perturbation Estimation Using an Auxiliary Source in an Unknown Direction

Abstract

In this paper, we propose an active calibration algorithm to tackle both gain-phase errors and position perturbations. Unlike many other active calibration methods, which fix the array while changing the location of the source, our approach rotates the array but does not change the location of the source, and knowledge of the direction-of-arrival (DOA) of the far-field calibration source is not required. The superiority of the proposed method lies in the fact that measurement of the direction of a far-field calibration source is not easy to carry out, while measurement of the rotation angle via the proposed calibration strategy is convenient and accurate. To obtain the receiving data from different directions, the sensor array is rotated to three different positions with known rotation angles. Based on the eigen-decomposition of the data covariance matrices, we can use the direction of the auxiliary source to represent the gain-phase errors and position perturbations. After that, we estimate the DOA of the calibration source by a one-dimensional search. Finally, the sensor gain-phase errors and position perturbations are calculated by using the estimated direction of the calibration source. Simulations verify the effectiveness and performance of the algorithm.