Direction-of-arrival and polarization estimation with uniform circular arrays in the presence of mutual coupling

A modified Root-MUSIC algorithm is proposed to estimate the directions-of-arrival (DOAs) and the polarization of plane waves, which impinge at a fixed elevation angle, using a diversely polarized uniform circular array (UCA). Special attention is devoted to the presence of mutual coupling effects in antenna arrays. By describing the electromagnetic characteristics on the basis of a phase-mode expansion for the open-circuit voltages and the mutual coupling matrix, the modified Root-multiple signal classification (MUSIC) algorithm takes mutual coupling effects into account by a limited number of phase modes. Finally, the efficiency of the new algorithm is verified based on synthetic antenna data.