Effect of element failure and random errors in amplitude and phase on the sidelobe level attainable with a linear array

Abstract

Low sidelobe levels may be a crucial factor in the success of achieving high gain using linear receiving arrays, since the level of the sidelobes determines the degree to which noisy nearby sources can be prohibited from interfering with the detection of a weak source on a different azimuth. In real world experiments at sea, one frequently operates with an array which has not only errors in amplitude and phase between channels but also dead elements. The effect of random errors in both amplitude and phase is to yield a sidelobe level of the average beam pattern which is the sum of the error-free pattern and an additional level due to the random errors. The sidelobe level due to the random errors depends upon the details of the amplitude shading function, the distribution function from which the random errors are drawn, and increases with the mean square value of the errors. Thus, given rms values of amplitude and phase errors, there is a practical limit to which the sidelobes can be reduced by amplitude shading the array. The effect of element failure on the sidelobe level can be drastic and depends on the sum of the amplitude weights of the dead elements. Thus, a failure of a highly-weighted element will have a greater effect on the sidelobe level than the failure of two or three whose combined weights are less. [Work supported by NAVMAT.]