A Low-Complexity Planar Antenna Array for Wireless Communication Applications: Performance Analysis and Beamforming

A low-complexity planar antenna array with antenna switching for wireless communication applications is addressed. The planar array consists of N₁ linear antenna arrays where each linear antenna array consists of N₂ receiving antennas. In each cycle, the receiving antennas on each linear antenna array are switched to the single receiving channel in turn from the 1st antenna to the N₂th antenna. We first derive the Cramer-Rao lower bound (CRLB) expressions for estimating the azimuth angle, elevation angle, velocity, and range using the considered planar array. We then propose a wideband beamforming algorithm for estimation of the source parameters. The proposed algorithm called the wideband Capon beamformer uses the time-varying steering vector model.