Steering vector taking mutual coupling effects into consideration

The MUSIC spectrum in the range of a set angle is constructed by applying steering vector and eigenvectors, corresponding to the noise sub-space in a cost function after obtaining the eigenvalues from the covariance matrix of the signals received by each radiating element of array antenna when such parameters as number, DOA (direction of arrival), and relative power of incident wavefronts are estimated by means of MUSIC. Mutual coupling effects exert a serious influence upon the covariance matrix and steering vector and make degrade the capacity of the estimator. We present an analysis of the steering vector of a planar array antenna constituted by 9 dipole antennas with a back reflector taking mutual coupling effects into consideration.