The quest for compact antenna arrays able to perform robust beamforming and high resolution direction of arrival (DOA) estimation is pushing the antenna array dimensions to progressively shrink, with effects in terms of reduced performance not only for the antenna but also for beamforming and DOA estimation algorithms, for which their assumptions about the antenna properties do not hold anymore. This work shows the design and development of an antenna array with adjustable mutual distance between the single elements: such setup will allow to scientifically analyse the effects that progressive miniaturization, i.e. progressively smaller mutual distances between the antennas, have on the DOA estimation algorithms, as well as show the improvements obtained by using array interpolation methods, i.e. techniques able to create a virtual array response out of the actual array one, such as to comply with the algorithms’ requirements on the antenna response. © 2017 IEEE.