A GPS digital phased array antenna and receiver

The NAVSYS High Gain Advanced GPS Receiver (HAGR) uses a digital beam steering antenna array to enable up to eight GPS satellites to be tracked, each with up to 10 dBi of additional antenna gain over a conventional receiver solution. This digital, PC-based architecture provides a cost-effective solution for commercial applications where more precise GPS measurements are needed. Additional gain provided on the satellite signals by the HAGR enables sub-meter pseudo-ranges to be observed directly on the correlator accelerator code and also improves the accuracy of the GPS carrier phase observations. The directivity of the digital beams created from the antenna array also reduces multipath errors, further improving the accuracy of DGPS corrections generated by the HAGR and the navigation and timing solution computed. This paper describes the beam steering array and digital receiver architecture and includes test data showing the HAGR performance.