Radiation pattern synthesis in conformal antenna arrays using modified convex optimization technique

Abstract

In this paper, a modified convex optimization technique is used for radiation pattern correction in a cylindrical-shaped conformal microstrip array antenna. The technique uses numerical simulations to optimize the amplitude and phase excitations, with the goal to decrease the Euclidean distance between the desired field pattern and the obtained (simulated/measured) field pattern while maintaining the main beam direction, null's location, and side lobe levels under control. Two prototypes of 1 × 4 $$ 1\times 4 $$ and 2 × 4 $$ 2\times 4 $$ conformal microstrip antenna array deformed from linear/planar structure to the prescribed cylindrical shape, with different radii of curvature, are studied to demonstrate the performance of the proposed technique. The proposed convex optimization model when applied to conformal antenna array possesses fast computing speed and high convergence accuracy for radiation pattern synthesis, which can be a valuable tool for engineering applications.