Low-Cost Metamaterial Antennas: Forward-Looking Imaging Experiment and Analysis

A phase error correction method is proposed to compensate for the phase error in super-resolution correlated imaging based on metamaterial antennas. The varying carrier frequencies of a metamaterial antenna can generate the random radiation field for super-resolution correlation imaging, but the variation of the signal carrier frequency leads to large phase errors in the imaging results. In this proposed method, the sampling matrix in the super-resolution correlated imaging algorithm is used to compensate for the phase errors. Each element of the matrix is multiplied by a compensation phase corresponding to the phase error, and the error is subtly removed from the algorithm. In the experiment, the antenna pattern at each frequency of the metamaterial antenna is measured and recorded. In addition, an external field experiment is also carried out, and the collected data are imaged with the improved algorithm. Experimental results show that this technology can effectively solve the effect of phase errors on imaging results caused by signal carrier frequency changes.