A novel array geometry to improve DOA estimation of narrowband sources at the angles close to the array endfire

This article proposes a new geometry to improve the Direction Of Arrival (DOA) estimation of narrowband sources arriving at directions close to the array endfires. This configuration adds two elements to the (N-2)-element Uniform Linear Array (ULA), so the size and computational load of the Proposed Array (PA) is identical to that of N-element ULA, while DOA estimation accuracy and angular resolution are higher for narrowband signals arriving at directions close the array endfires. In this investigation, two popular DOA estimation algorithms, MUSIC and MVDR, are applied to the proposed array and ULA. Simulation results show that PA has better accuracy and resolution than ULA with the same element number. Some other similar configurations are also examined and have shown better DOA estimation performance at endfire directions.