Six-Port-based Direction-Of-Arrival detection system

Direction-Of-Arrival (DOA) detection is a fundamental procedure required by several monitoring and tracking systems for defense purposes and other security applications as well as industrial monitoring and measurement. The ability of a system to accurately determine the incident angle of an arbitrary electromagnetic wave incoming toward the observer device is an important as well as challenging task especially when low-cost and robustness are also key points for the overall tracking and detection or surveillance solution. Phase-measurement based DOA detection is commonly used in nowadays systems, but existing methods are based on traditional mixer architectures or expensive direct conversion devices increasing complexity and cost while compromising robustness. In this paper an innovative, robust and accurate technique is proposed to perform the DOA detection by means of Six-Port based Phase Measurement Detection.