Excitation Retrieval for Phased Arrays With Magnitude-Only Fields Measured at a Fixed Location

An excitation retrieval method designed for phased arrays using magnitude-only field data is proposed. The reconstruction of complex excitations is formulated as a phase retrieval problem. After converting the original quadratic constraint to a linear one, a semidefinite convex optimization method is applied to calculate the solution. By controlling the excitation phases of array elements via phase shifters, independent and phaseless field data can be provided. Required conditions of the optimization method are satisfied in a proper way at the same time. Owing to this control strategy, it requires the position-fixed receiving probe only. The measuring process can be further simplified and probe shifting errors can be avoided.