Effect of amplitude and phase difference on phase center for GNSS fixed pattern antenna array

Antenna phase center offsets (PCO) and phase center variations (PCV) play an important role in high-precision GNSS applications. For the fixed pattern antenna array, the amplitude and phase difference between antennas may cause phase center degrading. In this paper, the effect of amplitude and phase difference on the phase center is studied. The method of computing the PCO and PCV for a given antenna pattern is first described, followed by the calculation of the far-field phase pattern including the amplitude and phase difference for the antenna array. Lastly, the phase center character of a two-element patch antenna array is presented and analyzed as a practical example.