On the Use of CVRP to Diagnose Faulty Elements in Antenna Arrays

TL;DR

This paper explores the use of Constrained-View Radiated Power (CVRP) to detect element failures in phased array antennas, demonstrating its effectiveness under various measurement conditions and errors.

Contribution

It introduces CVRP as a novel diagnostic method for antenna array failures, especially useful in near-field and indirect measurement scenarios.

Findings

CVRP can detect on-off element failures based on angular resolution.

Effective in scenarios with reduced total radiated power due to failures.

Suitable for near-field, indirect far-field, and far-field measurements without phase data.

Abstract

This paper investigates the application of Constrained-View Radiated Power (CVRP) for diagnosing phased array element failures, specifically focusing on on-off element failure. CVRP, similar to Partial Radiated Power (PRP), considers a specific Field-of-View (FoV) but normalizes it by the FoV area. The study explores CVRP's effectiveness in detecting failures in a 2x8 cosine element array under beam-steering conditions, accounting for random and depointing errors, angular resolution, and pattern rotation. Results indicate that CVRP can detect on-off failures based on angular resolution and error severity, under the assumption of reduced Total Radiated Power (TRP) with element failures. Additionally, CVRP is effective with partial far-field patterns, making it suitable for near-field, indirect far-field, and far-field measurement systems without requiring phase acquisition in the latter two.