Evaluation and compensation of mutual coupling and other non-idealities in small antenna arrays
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Doctoral thesis (article-based)
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en
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45, [84]
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Helsinki University of Technology Radio Laboratory publications. Report S, 276
Abstract
Smart antenna technology is a challenging area in the development of wireless communications. Using smart antennas the quality of a radio link can be improved by many ways. Smart antennas are active antenna arrays or groups with changeable complex-valued weights at inputs and outputs. Good electrical matching of the array and the similarity and ideality of element patterns is usually expected. This dissertation focuses on the problems in the smart antenna arrays caused mainly by mutual coupling. Mutual coupling causes reflected power in the feeding system, input/output signal correlation and corruption of the element patterns. The arrays used in this thesis are small microstrip arrays. The used frequency is about 5.3 GHz. For several arrays the element patterns and scattering matrices are measured and used in calculations and measurements. Also simulated patterns and scattering matrices are used. Due to mutual coupling the element patterns in an array are usually corrupted and therefore pattern correction should be used in smart antennas to improve the use of adaptive algorithms. In linear pattern correction the element patterns are reshaped using all antenna elements in the array. It is a computational method using a correction matrix between true and idealized inputs/outputs of array branches. For this pattern correction two basically different methods are used. The least squares error method can be used to find the correction matrix if the actual element patterns and the wanted element patterns are known, whereas in the scattering matrix method the correction matrix is defined only with the scattering matrix. These methods are compared in this thesis and the least squares error method is found to result in clearly better array patterns. The disadvantage of the scattering matrix method is that it does not compensate ground plate diffraction. However, the scattering matrix is easier to obtain than the element patterns and its use can give better understanding of the coupling mechanisms and therefore help the antenna design. Thus its use in pattern correction is examined more accurately. An extension of the least squares pattern correction method is done by correcting the array to a virtual array with different element spacing. The results show, that the element spacing in the virtual array should not differ significantly from the spacing in the real array. In addition to the pattern correction with a correction matrix the use of the real patterns for beamforming is examined. In a modified least squares method for beamforming the weighting (cost function) is used. The beamforming with and without robust weighting is compared on the relative scale and the use of weighting give better results. When antenna elements in an array are placed closer to each other, mutual coupling increases. At the same time the correlation between received signals increases. However, the signal correlation is usually caused by the signal propagation, and the effect of mutual coupling is minor. But, when signals arrive from many different directions, the pattern correlation caused by mutual coupling gives a realistic estimate of the signal correlation. The pattern correlation is a pure array characteristic and can be found easily. In this thesis the connection between pattern correlation and mutual coupling is examined. Equations are derived for this connection using scattering parameters or reflected power. These equations allow estimate mutual coupling from pattern correlation and vice versa, which is important for antenna array development. A more detailed formulation of the connection is done for lossless two-element arrays. In practice, when there are losses in the array, mutual coupling is not necessarily usable in estimation of pattern correlation.Description
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- Additional errata file available.
- I. Salonen, A. Toropainen, and P. Vainikainen, Linear pattern correction in a small microstrip antenna array, IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation, vol. 52, no. 2, pp. 578-586, Feb. 2004. [article1.pdf] © 2004 IEEE. By permission.
- I. Salonen and P. Vainikainen, Optimal virtual element patterns for adaptive arrays, IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation, vol. 54, no. 1, pp. 204-210, Jan. 2006. [article2.pdf] © 2006 IEEE. By permission.
- I. Salonen, C. Icheln, and P. Vainikainen, Beamforming with wide null sectors for realistic arrays using directional weighting, Helsinki University of Technology Radio Laboratory Publications, Report S 274, (ISBN 951-22-7973-8)(ISSN 1456-3835), Espoo, Finland, Dec. 2005, 24 p. [article3.pdf] © 2005 by authors.
- I. Salonen, C. Icheln, and P. Vainikainen, Microstrip antenna circuit model and linear pattern correction, in Proceedings of the 11th International Symposium on Antenna Technology and Applied Electromagnetics (ANTEM 2005), Saint-Malo, France, June 15-17, 2005, 4 downsized pages on pp. 182-183. [article4.pdf] © 2005 ANTEM. By permission.
- I. Salonen and P. Vainikainen, Estimation of signal correlation in antenna arrays, in Proceedings of the 12th International Symposium on Antennas (JINA 2002), Nice, France, Nov. 12-14, 2002, vol. 2, (ISSN 1168-3848), pp. 383-386. [article5.pdf] © 2002 SEE-GRéCA. By permission.
- I. Salonen, C. Icheln, and P. Vainikainen, Antenna array pattern correlation and input type, Electronics Letters, vol. 41, no. 10, pp. 575-577, May 2005. [article6.pdf] © 2005 IEE. By permission.
- I. Salonen, C. Icheln, and P. Vainikainen, Pattern correlation and mismatch in two-element antenna arrays, Microwave and Optical Technology Letters, vol. 48, no. 1, pp. 41-43, Jan. 2006. [article7.pdf] © 2006 by authors and © 2006 John Wiley & Sons. By permission.
- I. Salonen, C. Icheln, and P. Vainikainen, The dependency of pattern correlation on mutual coupling and losses in antenna arrays, Microwave and Optical Technology Letters, vol. 47, no. 2, pp. 145-147, Oct. 2005. [article8.pdf] © 2005 by authors and © 2005 John Wiley & Sons. By permission.
- P. Suvikunnas, I. Salonen, J. Kivinen, and P. Vainikainen, A novel MIMO antenna for laptop type device, in Proceedings of the Antenna Measurement Techniques Association, 26th Annual Meeting and Symposium (AMTA 2004), Stone Mountain, Georgia, USA, Oct. 17-22, 2004, pp. 118-123. [article9.pdf] © 2004 by authors.