Hoi Shun Lui

A Note on the Mutual-Coupling Problems in Transmitting and Receiving Antenna Arrays

In antenna arrays, mutual coupling between antenna elements is well known as an undesired effect, which degrades the performance of array signal-processing algorithms. The compensation of such an undesired effect has been a popular research topic throughout the years. Various approaches for mutual-coupling compensation have been developed, and they can easily be found in the open literature. In general, the mutual-coupling problems for a transmitting and receiving array are different, even if the physical geometry of the array remains unchanged. However, it seems that antenna engineers are not well aware of such differences in the analysis of receiving antenna arrays. In this note, the mutual-coupling problems in transmitting and receiving antenna arrays are revisited. The differences between the mutual coupling and mutual impedances for transmitting and receiving antenna arrays are explained. It is concluded that the mutual-coupling problems of transmitting and receiving arrays are in general different, and hence different mutual impedances should be used for mutual-coupling analysis and compensation.

Improved DOA Estimations Using the Receiving Mutual Impedances for Mutual Coupling Compensation: An Experimental Study

An experimental study is performed to investigate the improvement of direction-of-arrival (DOA) estimation using the recently proposed receiving mutual impedances for mutual coupling compensation. A seven-monopole antenna array is constructed and used in DOA estimation employing the MUSIC algorithm. Comparisons are made with the case of using the conventional mutual impedances for mutual coupling compensation. All experiments are carried out inside an anechoic chamber. Results are obtained for one- and two-source experiments which indicate that the performance of DOA estimation in the presence of mutual coupling can be significantly improved when the mutual coupling effect is compensated by using the receiving mutual impedances.

Mutual Coupling Compensation for Direction-of-Arrival Estimations Using the Receiving-Mutual-Impedance Method

A short review of the receiving-mutual-impedance method (RMIM) for mutual coupling compensation in direction finding applications using linear array is conducted. The differences between the conventional-mutual-impedance method (CMIM) and RMIM, as well as the three different determination methods for receiving mutual impedance (RMI), will be discussed in details. As an example, direction finding with better accuracies is used for demonstrating the superiority of mutual coupling compensation using RMIM.

Effective mutual coupling compensation for direction-of-arrival estimations using a new, accurate determination method for the receiving mutual impedance

Performance degradation due to the mutual coupling effect of antenna arrays in direction-of-arrival (DOA) estimations has been well known, and many mutual coupling compensation methods have been proposed throughout the years. In particular, the mutual coupling effect becomes significant when the antenna elements are closely spaced, which is difficult to compensate. In this paper, a new, accurate method is introduced to determine the receiving mutual impedances of antenna arrays with closely spaced omni-directional antenna elements. This new method uses a number of plane wave sources coming from different directions to determine the receiving mutual impedances of a particular antenna element with all other antenna elements in the array in a single step. This step is repeated for all the antenna elements in the array, and the full mutual impedance matrix of the array is thus obtained. Using the Matrix Pencil Method (MPM), DOA estimations using eight-element arrays were used to demonstrate the validity and accuracy of this new method.

Sampling Procedures for Resonance Based Radar Target Identification

The performance of radar target identification using the natural E-Pulse technique is significantly degraded if the sampling rates of the target response and the E-Pulse filter are ignored. In this work, improved sampling procedures over that previously reported by Antony and Shuley (Electron. Lett., vol. 40) in 2004 are proposed. Numerical results demonstrate that the proposed procedures significantly improve the target identification performance.

Terahertz inverse synthetic aperture radar imaging using self-mixing interferometry with a quantum cascade laser

We propose a terahertz (THz)-frequency synthetic aperture radar imaging technique based on self-mixing (SM) interferometry, using a quantum cascade laser. A signal processing method is employed which extracts and exploits the radar-related information contained in the SM signals, enabling the creation of THz images with improved spatial resolution. We demonstrate this by imaging a standard resolution test target, achieving resolution beyond the diffraction limit.

Subsurface Target Recognition Based on Transient Electromagnetic Scattering

The E-pulse technique which typically uses transient scattering data from radar targets in free space is one of the most well known resonance based radar target recognition schemes on which target recognition is based. In this communication, the possibility of subsurface target recognition based on the E-pulse technique is investigated using numerical examples of a metallic hip prosthesis embedded in models of realistic human tissue.

On the forward scattering of microwave breast imaging

Microwave imaging for breast cancer detection has been of significant interest for the last two decades. Recent studies focus on solving the imaging problem using an inverse scattering approach. Efforts have mainly been focused on the development of the inverse scattering algorithms, experimental setup, antenna design and clinical trials. However, the success of microwave breast imaging also heavily relies on the quality of the forward data such that the tumor inside the breast volume is well illuminated. In this work, a numerical study of the forward scattering data is conducted. The scattering behavior of simple breast models under different polarization states and aspect angles of illumination are considered. Numerical results have demonstrated that better data contrast could be obtained when the breast volume is illuminated using cross-polarized components in linear polarization basis or the copolarized components in the circular polarization basis.

A Novel, Fast, Approximate Target Detection Technique for Metallic Target Below a Frequency Dependant Lossy Halfspace

The extinction pulse (E-Pulse) technique has been widely applied to problems involving radar target identification. In this paper a fast approximate target detection and recognition scheme based on the E-Pulse technique is proposed and applied to a subsurface target detection and recognition scenario. Previous studies have demonstrated that the target resonances for subsurface targets are closely related to the target resonances for a target within a homogenous environment. In the proposed method, the target resonance for the target in the homogenous medium will be used to construct the E-Pulse for target detection and recognition purposes. The details of the proposed method will be described in this paper. The obvious example of a target below a dielectric halfspace is the use of ground penetrating radar (GPR) for detecting and recognizing unexploded ordnance (UXO). However, instead of a GPR related scenario, a numerical example of a biomedically related problem, of a hip prosthesis model sited within a halfspace of homogenous human tissue model with realistic dielectric properties will be used to demonstrate the feasibilities of the proposed technique for target detection and recognition. The reasons for the choice of this particular example will also be explained in the paper.

Resonance Based Radar Target Identification with Multiple Polarizations

In this paper, the problem of target identification with multiple data sets is investigated. A fixed incident aspect with multiple polarization angles is considered. Three different approaches of analyzing the multiple aspect information as used in the literature is discussed and exemplified using the scattering data from an L shaped wire target