Phased Array Calibration based on Rotating-Element Harmonic Electric-Field Vector

Phased array calibration is crucial for ensuring the performance of phased arrays. Calibration methods based on amplitude - only measurements, such as the rotating - element harmonic electric-field vector method (REV), have been widely studied due to their simple requirements for testing equipment. However, the calibration accuracy of this method is limited by the number of bits and phase-shift accuracy of the phase shifters. Therefore, in this conference paper, by using the time-modulated array (TMA) technology, a novel rotating-element harmonic electric-field vector (RHEV) method is proposed. This method enables the application of the REV method to the calibration of phased arrays equipped with only 1-bit phase shifters. More importantly, the calibration accuracy of this method is not affected by the accuracy of the phase shifters. An eight element phased array operating at 2.6 GHz was calibrated and calibrated, and the calibration results verified the effectiveness of the proposed method.