Synthetic-Aperture Passive Localization Utilizing Distributed Phased Moving-Antenna Arrays

This article presents a Synthetic-Aperture Distributed Phased Array (SADPA) framework to address emitter localization challenges in dynamic environments. Building on Distributed Synthetic-Aperture Radar (DSAR) principles, SADPA integrates distributed phased arrays with motion-induced phase compensation, enabling coherent aperture synthesis beyond physical array limits. By analytically modeling and compensating nonlinear phase variations caused by platform motion, we resolve critical barriers to signal integration while extending synthetic apertures. An improved MUSIC algorithm jointly estimates emitter positions and phase distortions, overcoming parameter coupling inherent in moving systems. To quantify fundamental performance limits, the Cramer–Rao bound (CRB) is derived as a theoretical benchmark. Numerical simulations demonstrate the SADPA framework’s superior performance in multi-source resolution and positioning accuracy; it achieves 0.012 m resolution at 10 GHz for emitters spaced 0.01 m apart. The system maintains consistent coherent gain exceeding 30 dB across both the 1.5 GHz communication and 10 GHz radar bands. Monte Carlo simulations further reveal that the MUSIC-DPD algorithm within the SADPA framework attains minimum positioning error (RMSE), with experimental results closely approaching the theoretical CRB.