Improved Phase-Encoding Calibration for Active Phased-Array Antennas of SAR

摘要

Calibration of the active phased-array antennas for synthetic aperture radar (SAR) is a complicated mission. The phase-encoding method is used to monitor and characterize individual transmit/receive modules of the active phased-array antenna, which has been demonstrated to be an effective method by TerraSAR-X in a spaceborne environment. The error source due to finite phase-encoding setting accuracy is modeled and analyzed, based on which a modification of the phase-encoding matrix is done to improve the measurement accuracy. Furthermore, simulation confirms a significant improvement in the measurement accuracy with the modification, showing an agreement with the model-based theoretical analysis.