Sparse Billboard and T-Shaped Arrays for Two-Dimensional Direction of Arrival Estimation

In two-dimensional direction of arrival (2D-DOA) estimation, planar arrays can estimate the elevation and azimuth angles simultaneously. However, many planar array topologies such as billboard, L-shaped, T-shaped, and 2D nested arrays suffer from mutual coupling that results from the small separation between the physical sensors (antennas), which limits the estimation capability of the sensor array. In an attempt to reduce mutual coupling between sensors, this article proposes sparse billboard and T-shaped arrays in which the number of closely separated sensors is significantly reduced. In addition to extending the CRB for fourth order coarray, this article also derives closed-form expressions for the sensor locations and the number of consecutive lags or the uniform degrees of freedom (uDOF), in the fourth-order difference coarray (FODC). Simulation results demonstrate the robustness of the proposed sparse arrays against mutual coupling.