Phased Sub-arrays Pattern Synthesis Method with Deep Sidelobe Reduction and Narrow Beam Width

Abstract

ABSTRACT Antenna arrays with low sidelobe patterns and high directivities are very desirable in practice and represent a key success for many communication systems such as radio telescopes, satellites, fifth-generation (5G) wireless communication systems, and high detection radars. To meet these features, a new array pattern synthesis method based on two uniformly sub-arrays controlled by a pre-specified power factor is presented. The proposed method includes the following steps: first, the outputs of those two scanned sub-arrays are added and subtracted to generate the sum and difference patterns, respectively. The sidelobe structures of these two generated patterns are nearly identical, then, an array pattern with greatly reduced sidelobes and narrowed beam width can be obtained by simply subtracting the difference pattern from the sum pattern. Simulation results show that the proposed array pattern with power factor, e = 0.5, can provide a sidelobe level about −32 dB (i.e. an improvement about −19 dB with compared to that of the corresponding fully uniform array). Moreover, the beam width of the proposed array has been greatly narrowed. Better results can be also obtained by controlling the scanned angles of the two sub-arrays.