As we all know, nested array can obtain a larger array aperture and more degrees of freedom using fewer sensors. In this study, we not only designed an enhanced symmetric nested array (ESNA), which achieved more consecutive lags and more unique lags compared with a generalized nested array but also developed a special cumulant matrix, in the case of a given number of sensors, which can automatically generate the largest consecutive lags of the array. First, the direction-of-arrivals (DOAs) of mixed sources are estimated using the special cumulant matrix. Then, we can estimate the range of the near-field source in the mixed source using a one-dimensional spectral search through estimated DOAs, and in the mixed sources, the near-field and far-field sources are classified by bringing in the range parameter. The largest consecutive lags and composition method of ESNA are also given, under a given number of sensors.Our algorithm has moderate computation complexity, which provides a higher resolution and improves the parameters’ estimation accuracy. Numerical simulation results demonstrate that the proposed array showed an outstanding performance under estimation accuracy and resolution ability for both DOA and range estimation compared with existing arrays of the same physical array sensors.

Recently, the design of sparse linear array for direction of arrival (DOA) estimation of non-circular (NC) signals has attracted great attention because the difference and sum co-array offered by non-circularity increases the aperture of virtual linear array. In this paper, we present a coprime array with shifted and flipped subarray for the DOA of non-circular signals. By shifting one subarray, the proposed array structure achieves a higher number of consecutive lags than the prototype coprime array with the same number of sensors. Then, through flipping the shifted subarray with the zero point as the symmetry point, the number of sensor pairs with small separation is significantly reduced, making the resulting structure much sparser. For the proposed array structure, we derive the closed-form expression for the number of consecutive lags, the optimal distribution of two subarrays with a given number of sensors and the weight function. Numerical simulations are conducted to verify the superiority of the proposed array over the existing sparse arrays.

Recently, sparse linear arrays have aroused significant attention because they can provide increased degrees of freedom (DOFs) and enlarged inter‐element spacing, which are the critical factors to improve the accuracy of direction of arrival (DOA) estimation. In this paper, to alleviate the high mutual coupling caused by the dense part of transformed nested arrays (TNAs), we present a super transformed nested array (STNA) for the DOA estimation of non‐circular signals. It can be obtained by removing some sensors from the dense part of transformed nested arrays and relocating them appropriately. The proposed array structure possesses a higher DOF and a sparser physical structure, resulting in less mutual coupling compared to TNA. For the proposed array structure, we provide theoretical proof of the DOFs and deduce the weight functions. Numerical simulations are conducted to demonstrate the advantages of the STNA over existing sparse arrays.

The sparse arrays using two uniform linear arrays have attracted considerable interest due to the capability of giving analytical expression of sensor location and owning robust direction‐of‐arrival (DOA) facing strong mutual coupling and sensor failure. In order to achieve the maximum consecutive virtual uniform linear array in difference coarray, in this paper, a design method of a novel sparse array using two uniform linear arrays (NSA‐U2) is proposed. We first analyze the relationship between the values of displacement of two subarrays and difference coarray, and then we give the analytical expressions of the displacement and the number of consecutive lags. By discussing the selection of number of subarray sensors, the design of NSA‐U2 is completed. Moreover, through choosing a proper compressed interelement spacing, NSA‐U2 can be robust to mutual coupling effect. Numerical experiments prove the effectiveness and favorable performance of DOA estimation with mutual coupling.

As we all know, the non‐uniform array is widely used in the mixed near‐field (NF) and far‐field sources localization. The nested array contains a uniform linear array, it is easy to be affected by mutual coupling, so we propose a symmetric thinned coprime array (STCA) to reduce the mutual coupling effect of mixed source localization. In this paper, the STCA configuration consists of two sparse uniform linear arrays, the first subarray is composed of 2 N − 1 sensors, and the sensor element spacing is Md . The second subarray is composed of sensors, and the sensor element spacing are Nd and Md respectively. The two subarrays form the symmetric coprime array, which shares a reference sensor. Under the same number of physical array sensors, compared with the latest symmetric nested array, although STCA has lower consecutive lags, the array sensors have larger inter‐sensor spacing and larger physical array aperture, which can significantly reduce the mutual coupling effect between physical sensors, and better estimation performance of direction‐of‐arrival (DOA) estimation can be achieved. Finally, simulation results show that STCA can achieve better performance than other symmetric nested arrays under the same array sensors and mutual coupling effects.

Owing to increased degrees of freedom (DOFs) and reduced mutual coupling effect, sparse linear arrays can improve the performance of direction‐of‐arrival estimation compared with uniform linear arrays. In this study, a novel sparse linear array is presented based on fourth‐order cumulants, which consists of five sparse sub‐arrays. The sensor locations of the five sub‐arrays are determined by a closed‐form expression. Closed‐form expressions of DOFs for the proposed array with any number of sensors are also derived. By optimising the allocation of sensors in each sub‐array, the DOFs of the proposed array with M sensors achieve . Because each sub‐array is sparse, the number of pairwise sensors with small separation is significantly alleviated. Theoretical analysis shows that the proposed array can provide a higher number of DOFs and is more robust in scenarios with heavy levels of mutual coupling than most sparse linear arrays. Numerical simulations are conducted to demonstrate the merits of the proposed array over other sparse linear arrays.