Novel Calibration Techniques Using Ground Calibration Sources for a Satellite Receiving DBF Antenna

Abstract

This study presents novel calibration techniques for a satellite receiving digital beamforming antenna, using ground calibration sources. The proposed technique utilizes calibration sources with known locations and cross-correlation vectors, which are the averages of the products of the array received signal vector and the received signal of the reference antenna element. The proposed method requires accurate information on the calibration source directions, and thus antenna pointing errors resulting from the satellite attitude fluctuation deteriorate the calibration accuracy. To address this issue, the method is extended to a blind calibration technique, in which amplitude and phase errors of the antenna and the antenna pointing error are estimated concurrently. The extended method also uses the cross-correlation vectors and incorporates a constrained minimization problem of the L₁-norm of the amplitude errors. Simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed techniques.