Direction of arrival estimation based on time-modulated antenna array

The application of time-modulated antenna arrays (TMAAs) in direction of arrival (DOA) estimation is investigated in this paper. The classical multiple signal classification (MUSIC) algorithm in DOA estimation is deformed to suit for the TMAAs. Moreover, a method of combining the MUSIC algorithm and differential evaluation (DE) and genetic algorithm (GA) is proposed to avoid fake peaks, improve the probability of resolution and decrease angle error of DOA estimation. Simulation results of the DOA estimation with an 8-element time-modulated linear array (TMLA) are presented which show the proposed method has better performance than conventional uniform linear array (ULA). Moreover, an experiment of DOA estimation based on TMLA is carried out to give a further verification of the application of TMAA in DOA estimation.