Retrodirective beams and their application to low sidelobe pattern synthesis in small planar phased arrays

Abstract

Beam synthesis remains one of the most difficult problems for an antenna array designer, this task being made more difficult when one limits the number of elements to a handful. Pattern synthesis in planar arrays is often achieved by the sampling of a continuous aperture distribution at the element locations. In the case of arrays of limited numbers of elements this produces errors that can unacceptably distort the radiation pattern. When one also then considers the effects of mutual coupling between the antenna elements, the application of ideal element weights derived in this way are no longer valid. In the paper a technique is presented, using the concept of retrodirective beams, that can achieve a low sidelobe beam from a continuous distribution on a circular aperture. The theory is then extended to include a planar array of antenna elements. This is achieved by the addition of retrodirective beams to the uniform beam pattern of the array. Measured data is presented for a small planar array antenna using the derived method. A method for correction of the element weights, to minimise the effects of mutual coupling, producing low sidelobe radiation patterns is then applied. No knowledge of the antenna array's coupling coefficients are required.