Novel Robust Adaptive Beamformer in the Presence of Gain-Phase Errors.

In this paper, we consider the problem of robust adaptive beamforming (RAB) for a linear array in the presence of gain-phase errors. By setting a few calibrated auxiliary elements on one side of a linear array, we propose a novel gain error and phase error estimation algorithm to calibrate gain-phase errors. According to the proposed estimation algorithm, the unknown gain error and phase error are jointly estimated by calculating the eigenvector corresponding to the minimum eigenvalue of the available transitional matrices. Furthermore, we calibrate the received data and compensate for the nonwhite noise caused by the calibration process. Then, the interference-plus-noise covariance matrix (INCM) is reconstructed based on the calibrated steering vector. By incorporating the reconstructed INCM with the minimum variance distortionless response principle, a novel robust adaptive beamformer for a linear array with gain-phase errors is designed. The proposed beamformer can obviously improve RAB performance in a linear array with gain-phase errors. The robustness and superiority of the designed beamformer are demonstrated in simulations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]