Patent ID: 8358239

Claim:
A method for calibrating a phased array antenna comprising: combining a plurality of receive signals generated by a plurality of antenna elements in a phased array antenna to generate a receive beam, wherein a gain of each receive signal is determined according to a respective beamformer weight in a plurality of beamformer weights for the receive beam and wherein a phase of each receive signal to the combination is determined according to a respective steering value in a plurality of steering values for the receive beam; processing the receive beam to generate a main range-Doppler image; measuring an average of a sidelobe clutter power in the range-Doppler image for a plurality of ranges; determining a value of an objective function that is responsive to the average of the sidelobe clutter power; and modifying the plurality of beamformer weights and repeating the step of determining the value of the objective function until a maximum value of the objective function is determined.