Design and calibration of circular uniform beam array for wideband channel characterisation

Antenna arrays are central to the parametric characterisation of the radio channel, which includes the estimation of angle of arrival and angle of departure of the multipath components. Estimation of angular information requires accurate characterisation of the magnitude and phase response of the antenna array. Wideband patch arrays with 45?? directivity were designed and implemented for channel measurements in the 2??GHz band. Two antenna calibration units, which either simultaneously measure the magnitude for eight antennas or measure the magnitude and phase of four antenna elements, were designed and implemented to characterise the arrays. Results demonstrating the suitability of the arrays and the calibration techniques for angle of arrival estimation are presented.