Direction Finding Based on Principal Component Analysis for Planar Antenna Array

A direction finding algorithm based on point cloud data analysis is described for a planar antenna array. Cumulative phases are calculated by sequentially adding inter-element phase differences to free from wrapping between -π and π. The cumulative phases are transformed into propagation delays as the point cloud data. The norm vector, which is perpendicular to an approximated plane of the point cloud data, is obtained as the eigenvector with the minimum eigenvalue through eigenvalue decomposition of a 3 × 3 covariance matrix. Simulation results show that the angle of arrival is successfully estimated in environments with a single wave of arrival.