On Proper Antenna Pattern for a Simple Source Detection and Localization System

This paper proposes a simple and practical passive system for detection and direction finding of a far-field signal source. The proposed system receives signal emitted from a far away source using a set of similar directional antennas. The envelope of the received signals are used both to detect the existence of a pulse and to estimate it's bearing angle. We determine a set of design constraints on the employed antennas pattern such that the processing algorithm be simple and practical which operates in a wide frequency range at each instant. We evaluate the required constrains on the shape of antenna's pattern and we study the performance of the proposed algorithm. It is shown that simple antennas can be efficiently utilized in this system.