Low-Cost Direction-of-Arrival Measurements using Multiplexed Antenna Switching

In this publication a method for direction-of-arrival measurements is introduced. It allows very low cost implementations. Instead of using multiple wide-band receivers with an antenna each, a single narrow-band receiver is used in combination with six antennas. The different antenna signals are time multiplexed to the receiver using an integrated 6-to-l RF switch. Signal processing allows to synchronize the corresponding signals to allow the calculation of the incident angle. As exact synchronization is not necessary, fast transitions between multiple frequencies are possible and therefore accuracy can be significantly increased.