A DIRECTION-FINDING ANTENNA SYSTEM USING AN INTEGRATED 6-PORT CIRCUIT

A new method to measure the complex ratio of signals at adjacent eleme nts of an array is presented. The circuit used for the measurement is an integrated six-port junction operated as an homodyne vectorial anal yzer. A procedure that uses three known and many unknown incident or r adiated fields conditions to calibrate the junction embedded in the an tenna feed network is implemented. Experimental results are shown for a basic two-element array used as a receiving antenna. The direction o f arrival of an incoming plane wave computed from the six-port measure ments can be determined with a good accuracy. The monitoring system pr esented may find applications in direction-of-arrival estimation.