Hardware Implementation and RF High-Fidelity Modeling and Simulation of Compressive Sensing Based 2D Angle-of-Arrival Measurement System for 2–18 GHz Radar Electronic Support Measures

This article presents the hardware implementation and a behavioral model-based RF system modeling and simulation (M&S) study of compressive sensing (CS) based 2D angle-of-arrival (AoA) measurement system for 2–18 GHz radar electronic support measures (RESM). A 6-channel ultra-wideband RF digital receiver was first developed using a PXIe-based multi-channel digital receiver paired with a 6-element random-spaced 2D cavity-backed-spiral-antenna array. Then the system was tested in an open lab environment. The measurement results showed that the system can measure AoA of impinging signals from 2–18 (GHz) with overall RMSE of estimation at 3.60, 2.74, 1.16, 0.67 and 0.56 (deg) in L, S, C, X and Ku bands, respectively. After that, using the RF high-fidelity M&S (RF HF-M&S) approach, a 6-channel AoA measurement system behavioral model was also developed and studied using a radar electronic warfare (REW) engagement scenario. The simulation result showed that the airborne AoA measurement system could successfully measure an S-band ground-based target acquisition radar signal in the dynamic REW environment. Using the RF HF-M&S model, the applicability of the system in other frequencies within 2–18 (GHz) was also studied. The simulation results demonstrated that the airborne AoA measurement system can be used for 2–18 GHz RESM applications.