Wideband Reconfigurable Vector Antenna for 3-D Direction Finding Application ; Antenne vectorielle reconfigurable et large-bande appliquée à la radiogoniométrie 3D

Open Access

Abstract

Direction finding plays a crucial role in various civilian and military applications, related to either radionavigation or radiolocation. Most of the direction finding antennas operate over a wide frequency band, but only a minority of them enable the direction of arrival estimation of an incoming electromagnetic field over a 3-D angular coverage (i.e., estimation of both azimuth and elevation angles). An original approach to obtain a 3-D angular coverageconsists in measuring the six components of the incident electromagnetic field through a so-called vector antenna. The aim of this Ph.D. is to design a passive, compact and wideband vector antenna in order to cover a maximum of applications. Two vector antennas have been designed, manufactured and experimentally characterized. Unlike conventional topology, they enable the measurement of the components of an incoming electromagnetic field thanks to the radiation pattern reconfigurability of an original arrangement of Vivaldi antennas. The first prototype is mounted over a finite metallic support and enables the direction of arrival estimation of vertically-polarized electromagnetic fields over a 1.69:1 bandwidth while the second one can be used regardless of the polarization of the incoming electromagnetic fields over a 8:1 bandwidth. Moreover, the direction finding performances of these vector antennas have been improved in terms of estimation accuracy, sensitivity, robustness to angular ambiguity and polarization mismatch by synthesizing new radiation patterns in the estimation process. A method based onthe Cramer-Rao lower bound has been proposed to select efficiently and rapidly the additional radiation patterns. ; La radiogoniométrie joue un rôle crucial dans diverses applications, aussi bien civiles que militaires, liées soit à la radionavigation ou à la radiolocalisation. La plupart des antennes de goniométrie opèrent sur une large bande de fréquences, mais seule une minorité d'entre elles permettent l'estimation de la direction d'arrivée d'un champ ...