Oth Radar Ahttenna Array Calibration Analysis

Abstract

In this paper we look at the effect of model errors on the performance of the optimum minimum variance distortionless response (MVDR) processor, when the weights are obtained using the noise only covariance matrix. We not only consider the typical model errors : gain errors, phase error and sensor position errors; but also consider the effect of uncompensated mutual coupling. While the signal-to-noise ratio and beampointing error are robust to model errors, the sidelobes are shown to be very sensitive. Due to this sensitivity, under non-stationary interferer environments, we show that model errors can greatly worsen the attainable sub-clutter visibility (clutter-to-noise ratio).