Systematic methods for the synthesis of equidistant MIMO arrays

Abstract

Finding a feasible antenna arrangement for multiple input multiple output (MIMO) arrays to serve a specific purpose is a first crucial step towards a successful MIMO radar system design. Design methods to synthesize uniformly weighted and equidistant MIMO arrays are proposed and investigated. The methods can be used to gain a design foundation for 1D or 2D arrays without software tools or programming effort. Since the presented approach does not consider electromagnetic fields, electromagnetic full-wave simulations might be required additionally. The method is based on sequentially copying and displacing antenna groups with the help of a number scheme. A nomenclature is proposed to classify the degrees of freedom in the design procedure. If the antennas are aligned to a uniform grid, a polynomial representation of the array can be chosen alternatively. This method is beneficial when redundancies of a produced array and where they appear must be analyzed. A new design problem arises when an array is to consist of only transceiving antennas, which can be analyzed with polynomial multiplication. One strategy to find a suitable MIMO array consisting of transceiver elements is given and evaluated.