Near-field DOA estimation oriented sparse array design via symmetric augmentation of three ULAs

A symmetric sparse array, via symmetric augmentation of three (SAT) uniform linear subarrays, has been designed for direction of arrival (DOA) estimation of uncorrelated near-field or coexisted near-field and far-field narrowband source signals. With an explicit design of the subarray structures and positions, this SAT array 1) involves only two closely spaced antenna pairs (with quarter-wavelength spacing); 2) has a large uniform degree of freedom (uDOF) and difference co-array; 3) can have either even or odd number of antennas; and 4) has closed form expressions for antenna positions, uDOF and weight functions. Simulation results show that the SAT array is superior to the current symmetric sparse arrays in both antenna mutual coupling and consecutive virtual aperture.