Antenna array hardware amplitude and phase compensation using baseband antenna array outputs

Most direction finding algorithms require knowledge of the array manifold. The array manifold may be estimated using expensive and time consuming array calibration procedures. An alternative is to bore-sight the array and then assume that the array manifold is ideal. Bore-sighting is often achieved by injecting a common signal into the RF front-end using a signal generator followed by a signal splitter. Unknown phase shifts through the splitter will cause errors in the bore-sighting process. In this paper we describe a simple procedure for estimating and then compensating for the non-ideal phase shifts in the splitter using complex baseband measurements at the array output.