A quadratic model for the far-field direction of arrival estimation

In this paper, we address the problem of estimating the directions of arrival of far-field source signals. For that, we propose a new nonuniform linear array that allows the analyst to model the array data snapshot as a second-order polynomial phase signal. This permits the use of polynomial phase parameter estimation and time-frequency based estimation techniques, in addition to existing direction of arrival estimation methods. Furthermore, for the purpose of simplifying the analysis, we propose here an estimation technique based on the Wigner-Ville distribution kernel. Examples and Monte-Carlo simulations are presented to show the validity, effectiveness, and statistical efficiency of this technique.