Nonuniform linear antenna arrays for enhanced near field source localization

Arrays of sensors freely located along an axis are considered in this paper that are used to localize a near-field emitting source. Using Taylor expansion and a suitable coordinate system, simple, yet rich to interpret, Cramer-Rao bounds relative to the direction and range parameters are derived. Our analysis allows in particular to unveil a family of non-uniform linear arrays with better near field estimation capabilities, compared to the well-established uniform linear arrays.