Analysis of DOA estimation under mixed-resolution based on conformal arrays

Conformal antennas typically utilize short dipoles to reduce space occupation. Conformal antenna arrays are essentially polarization-sensitive arrays with broad applicability and enhanced anti-interference capabilities. However, a practical issue that needs to be addressed is the high power consumption and resource usage resulting from high-resolution analog-to-digital converters (ADCs). In this paper, we introduce the mixed-resolution quantization method into the conformal array to alleviate the pressure on resource transmission by partially reducing the quantization resolution. The receive signal model is constructed in this paper, and a rank-deficient MUSIC algorithm suitable for the proposed scheme is developed. The direction of arrival (DOA) parameters, as well as the polarization parameters, are estimated with considerable accuracy. The power consumption and system cost are effectively reduced with a small sacrifice on parameter estimation accuracy. Numerical simulations validate the feasibility of proposed mixed-quantized conformal array.