Design and analysis of broadband beamspace adaptive arrays

A beamspace adaptive planar array for broadband beamforming is proposed based on the frequency invariant beamforming technique. A detailed analysis is provided for both the linear arrays and the planar arrays, where two conditions are imposed: the beams should exhibit a good frequency invariant property and be linearly independent. These two conditions are not independent and there is a tradeoff between them. To improve the interference cancellation capability of the array, we may need to sacrifice the frequency invariant property to some degree for more linearly independent beams. A sufficient condition for the linear independence of the beams is derived with a DFT matrix based design proposed. Simulation results verified our analysis and the proposed method. Index Terms--Adaptive arrays, antenna arrays, beam steering, broadband communication.