Co-prime array processing with sum and difference co-array

Among various sparse-array techniques, co-prime array is found to be more attractive because of its high efficiency and simplicity. In this paper, we propose a scheme that can exploit both sum and difference co-arrays to form a larger size of continuous virtual array while keeping the conventional co-prime array configuration. Compared to the method that needs to extend the sensor array size to ensure the continuity of virtual array, our scheme can reduce the number of required physical sensors while still obtaining the same or even more degrees-of-freedomthat can be exploited in direction-of-arrival (DOA) estimation. Simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness of our proposed method in achieving lower-cost, faster, and more accurate DOA estimation.