Direction finding plays a crucial role in various civilian and military applications, related to either radionavigation or radiolocation. Most of the direction finding antennas operate over a wide frequency band, but only a minority of them enable the direction of arrival estimation of an incoming electromagnetic field over a 3-D angular coverage (i.e., estimation of both azimuth and elevation angles). An original approach to obtain a 3-D angular coverage consists in measuring the six components of the incident electromagnetic field through a so-called vector antenna. The aim of this Ph.D. is to design a passive, compact and wideband vector antenna in order to cover a maximum of applications. Two vector antennas have been designed, manufactured and experimentally characterized. Unlike conventional topology, they enable the measurement of the components of an incoming electromagnetic field thanks to the radiation pattern reconfigurability of an original arrangement of Vivaldi antennas. The first prototype is mounted over a finite metallic support and enables the direction of arrival estimation of vertically-polarized electromagnetic fields over a 1.69:1 bandwidth while the second one can be used regardless of the polarization of the incoming electromagnetic fields over a 8:1 bandwidth. Moreover, the direction finding performances of these vector antennas have been improved in terms of estimation accuracy, sensitivity, robustness to angular ambiguity and polarization mismatch by synthesizing new radiation patterns in the estimation process. A method based on the Cramer-Rao lower bound has been proposed to select efficiently and rapidly the additional radiation patterns

La radiogoniométrie joue un rôle crucial dans diverses applications, aussi bien civiles que militaires, liées soit à la radionavigation ou à la radiolocalisation. La plupart des antennes de goniométrie opèrent sur une large bande de fréquences, mais seule une minorité d’entre elles permettent l'estimation de la direction d’arrivée d’un champ électromagnétique incident sur une couverture angulaire 3-D (c.-à-d., l’estimation à la fois des angles d’azimut et d’élévation). Une approche originale permettant d’obtenir une couverture angulaire 3-D consiste à mesurer les six composantes d’un champ électromagnétique incident à l’aide d’une antenne dite vectorielle. L'objectif de cette thèse est de concevoir une antenne vectorielle passive, compacte et large bande afin de couvrir un maximum d'applications. Deux antennes vectorielles ont été conçues, fabriquées et caractérisées expérimentalement. \`A la différence d'une topologie conventionnelle, elles permettent de mesurer les composantes d'un champ électromagnétique incident grâce à la reconfigurabilité en diagramme de rayonnement d'un arrangement original d'antennes Vivaldi. Le premier prototype est monté sur un support métallique fini et permet l'estimation de la direction d'arrivée de champs électromagnétiques polarisés verticalement sur une bande passante de 1.69:1 tandis que le second peut être utilisé quelle que soit la polarisation des champs électromagnétiques incidents sur une bande passante de 8:1. De plus, les performances de goniométrie de ces antennes vectorielles ont été améliorées du point de vue de la précision, de la sensibilité, de la robustesse face aux ambiguïtés angulaires et aux erreurs de dépolarisation en synthétisant de nouveaux diagrammes de rayonnement dans le processus d'estimation. Une méthode basée sur la borne de Cramer-Rao a été élaborée afin de sélectionner efficacement et rapidement les diagrammes de rayonnement supplémentaires. / Direction finding plays a crucial role in various civilian and military applications, related to either radionavigation or radiolocation. Most of the direction finding antennas operate over a wide frequency band, but only a minority of them enable the direction of arrival estimation of an incoming electromagnetic field over a 3-D angular coverage (i.e., estimation of both azimuth and elevation angles). An original approach to obtain a 3-D angular coverage consists in measuring the six components of the incident electromagnetic field through a so-called vector antenna. The aim of this Ph.D. is to design a passive, compact and wideband vector antenna in order to cover a maximum of applications. Two vector antennas have been designed, manufactured and experimentally characterized. Unlike conventional topology, they enable the measurement of the components of an incoming electromagnetic field thanks to the radiation pattern reconfigurability of an original arrangement of Vivaldi antennas. The first prototype is mounted over a finite metallic support and enables the direction of arrival estimation of vertically-polarized electromagnetic fields over a 1.69:1 bandwidth while the second one can be used regardless of the polarization of the incoming electromagnetic fields over a 8:1 bandwidth. Moreover, the direction finding performances of these vector antennas have been improved in terms of estimation accuracy, sensitivity, robustness to angular ambiguity and polarization mismatch by synthesizing new radiation patterns in the estimation process. A method based on the Cramer-Rao lower bound has been proposed to select efficiently and rapidly the additional radiation patterns