DOA Estimation Algorithm of Coherent Signals for Cylindrical Conformal Arrays based on Fourth-Order Cumulation.

In this paper, an effective direction of arrival (DOA) estimation algorithm of coherent signals for cylindrical conformal arrays (CCAs) based on fourth-order cumulation is proposed. Affected by the shadow effect, the CCAs is divided into several subarrays to obtain the output vector without zero element. To mitigate the element loss of subarray, an improved interpolation method is utilized to transform the directional subarray into the virtual nested arrays. Then, the full rank covariance matrix is constructed using the fourth-order cumulation of virtual nested arrays, which realize the decoherence of cohetent signals. Finally, the unitary estimation of the signal parameters via rotational invariance techniques (ESPRIT) is conducted on the matrix to obtain the angle of incident signals. Simulation results demonstrate the validity of proposed algorithm.