Direction Finding Based on Spatial Spectrum Estimation with Time-Modulated Linear Array

A novel direction finding method based on spatial spectrum estimation is proposed and verified with time modulated linear array (TMLA). Because of time modulation, harmonic components are generated in each element. Then, they are added together by a power combiner. Utilizing a single RF channel, the autocorrelation matrix can be estimated from the harmonic spectrum of the received signal. Then multiple signal classification (MUSIC) algorithm can be applied to estimate the direction of arrival (DOA). The proposed method can significantly reduce the complexity and cost of existing methods. Numeric simulations are provided to verify its effectiveness.