On the Accuracy of Array Manifold Models

摘要

The antenna array manifold is central to high-resolution array processing. The analytic manifold is defined here as the mathematical model of the array response calculated by solving the electromagnetic equations for the waves impinging on the array. Array manifolds commonly used in the array processing literature are simplified and potentially inaccurate versions of the analytic manifold. This paper describes the characteristics of the analytic manifold and how they differ from those of the simplified manifolds. These differences can degrade the performance of direction-of-arrival estimation in challenging super-resolution scenarios. The mutual coupling matrix and its properties are discussed in some detail.