High Resolution ESM/ELINT DOA estimation with super-heterodyne multi-octave antenna system

This paper describes a compact antenna system architecture for DOA estimation in electronic warfare environments. The single antenna modules are intended to cover a certain frequency range each. This super-heterodyne approach allows covering a bandwidth larger than four octaves. The novelty of the presented structure, with respect to typical ESM/ELINT approaches, lies in a spatially shared solution for the intermediate and high-band arrays by means of an interdigitated architecture. Throughout the document, it is also shown how mixed amplitude/phase DOA algorithms allow better angular accuracy than amplitude-based methods.