A Versatile Calibration Method for Small Active Antenna Arrays

Abstract

A novel method is introduced to determine the gain and phase inequalities in antenna arrays that are caused by active components. This method makes use of the reciprocity of a single transmission line that propagates a calibration signal to all elements. This approach avoids a symmetric divider network and therefore it can be easily applied to two-dimensional, not equally spaced or non-planar arrays. An estimation of the systematic error is given. The concept is experimentally verified.