Title:  Recommended Practice for Calibration of Digital Phased Arrays

Scope:  This recommended practice develops calibrating techniques for digital phased arrays including mixed/hybrid analog-digital arrays in transmit or receive modes. This recommended practice primarily addresses in-situ calibration techniques for digital phased arrays deployed in the field where environmental conditions may be present such as scatterers and perturbations due to excursions in temperature, rain, hail, and wind. Calibration techniques relevant to indoor/laboratory/factory environments are also considered.

Digital phased arrays are an advanced technology used in radar and communication applications. These systems are capable of adaptive beamforming and more robust performance in interference environments than analog phased arrays. To extract as much performance as possible from a digital phased array it is necessary that the array is well calibrated, especially if deployed in a field environment where extraneous scatterers may affect the beampattern. This recommended practice provides guidance for the accurate calibration of digital phased arrays.