Mitigating Truncation Errors in Near-Field Phased Array Diagnostics Exploiting Steering Diversity

This paper presents a novel technique for the diagnosis of faulty elements in phased array antennas. By exploiting the inherent steering diversity of phased arrays, the proposed approach overcomes the limitations imposed by truncation errors in the standard near-field Back-Transformation Method (BTM). Specifically, by reorganizing the spectra associated with each steering direction into a unified domain and leveraging data redundancy, the method effectively denoises the measurements and recovers a reliable bandwidth over the entire visible domain. Finally, an extensive Monte Carlo numerical analysis demonstrates the feasibility and enhanced accuracy of the proposed technique, highlighting its capability to achieve a high probability of detection with respect to the classical single-view approach.