DOA Estimation for Curved Antenna Arrays Using CRLB Analysis and SDR

Cramer-Rao lower bound (CRLB) analysis for estimation of the direction of arrival (DOA) for curved receiving antenna arrays is presented. Software defined radio (SDR) measurements are used to validate the results. First the CRLB for curved arrays is derived. Then the method is applied to case studies using three different arrays for DOA estimation. The arrays with four antennas with different curvatures are fabricated and SDR is used to validate the results. It is found that the performance depends on the DOA, with the curved array providing benefits for certain directions of arrival. The proposed method can help designers of arrays for DOA estimation to improve the performance.