Sidelobe Suppression Research Articles

A Collaborative Control Method of Transmission Amplitude and Phase for Transmitarray Antenna Design

In this paper, a collaborative control method of transmission amplitude and phase for transmitarray antenna (TA) design is proposed. In this proposed method, one of the most popular hypersurface fitting models, Gaussian stochastic process (GP) model, is utilized to construct an accurate surrogate model. Following this implementation, a mapping relationship between structural parameters of TA unit cell and its transmission amplitude and phase is established. The most advantage of this method is its applicability for general TA designs because it is much difficult to control the amplitude and phase of unit cell independently through adjusting separate structural parameters. To verify the high efficiency of the proposed method, three TA antennas with different scanning angles are designed to obtain high sidelobe suppression level. Measured results show that the proposed collaborative control method of amplitude and phase is much promising for high sidelobe suppression level in TA designs.

A new diamond-shaped periodic permanent magnet electromagnetic acoustic transducer for side-lobe suppression of shear horizontal ultrasonic waves

Periodic permanent magnet electromagnetic acoustic transducers (PPM EMATs) effectively generate shear horizontal (SH) ultrasonic guided waves in metallic media. Depending on their construction parameters, PPM EMATs can generate ultrasonic waves towards unwanted directions, due to the presence of side lobes in their radiation pattern. In this paper, a new PPM-like EMAT is proposed with the objective of reducing the side-lobe level in the radiation pattern of PPM EMATs. This was achieved by altering the magnets’ dimension in the PPM array following a diamond-like shape, reducing their width as one gets further from the centre of the transducer. The radiation behaviour of the EMAT was evaluated by means of an apodization factor, defined as the aperture reduction ratio. The side-lobe level showed a maximum reduction for an apodization factor of approximately 2. Four different configurations of the new PPM-like EMAT design and two reference conventional PPM EMATs were fabricated and experimentally evaluated on an aluminium plate. Experimental radiation patterns were compared to analytical model results showing good agreement. Relative to the conventional PPM EMAT, the new apodized diamond-shaped PPM EMAT presented a side lobe suppression of up to approximately 8 dB.

A short wave radar beam sharpening method based on generalised oblique projection operator with flexible parameter

AbstractBeamforming is an effective way of resolving target direction and anti‐jamming in short wave (SW) radar systems. In conventional beamforming (CBF) at a certain frequency, to get high resolution, the array aperture should be increased, and this is often not allowed in practical applications. A new narrow beam forming (NBF) method for beam sharpening based on the generalised oblique projection (GOP) filter with a flexible parameter is proposed. This method uses a GOP filter bank to form deep nulls in the undesired azimuth range on the pattern and utilises the logic product process to synthesise the GOP filters’ outputs and thus obtains a narrow beam. Compared to traditional beamforming methods, the result of NBF has the characteristics of narrower beam width and bigger side lobe suppression ratio (SLSR). Especially, a narrower beam can be obtained in the case of a small array aperture, which is valuable for practical applications. Experimental results of the range‐Doppler spectrum of short wave radar show that this narrow beam forming method can achieve super resolution of targets within a wide beam and greatly suppress clutter. Therefore, NBF can improve the azimuth resolution and achieve interference suppression in a conventional beam.

Extended Projection Distance and Sidelobe Suppression of THz Bessel Beam With Combined Axicons

Extended Projection Distance and Sidelobe Suppression of THz Bessel Beam With Combined Axicons

MIMO radar partially correlated waveform design based on chirp rate diversity

Waveform design is a significant topic in multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) radar. In this paper, we address the problem of waveform design for colocated narrowband MIMO radar transmit beampattern synthesis. The existing methods have not comprehensively considered the transmit beampattern synthesis under multiple practical constraints, such as constant modulus constraint, Doppler tolerance, high range resolution and low auto-correlation sidelobe. We consider these practical constraints and propose a novel chirp rate diversity-based linear frequency modulated (CRD-LFM) waveform design for approximating the desired MIMO radar transmit beampattern. To tackle the problem, we improve the classical two-step approach. Firstly we design the covariance matrix using the existing closed-form solution. Then we model the problem of obtaining the waveforms from the covariance matrix as a nonlinear optimization problem, and we utilize the Sequential Quadratic Programming (SQP) algorithm to solve it. The simulations demonstrate that the waveforms obtained by this method can well approximate the desired transmit beampattern and have higher range resolution. Furthermore, we verify that the suppression of auto-correlation sidelobe can be achieved using amplitude weighting, which is easily realizable in practical engineering.

Low sidelobe silicon optical phased array with Chebyshev amplitude distribution.

We propose and demonstrate a silicon photonic optical phased array (OPA) with ultra-low sidelobe level. The arbitrary ratio power splitters (ARPSs) are introduced to manipulate the amplitude distribution between different channels and suppress the sidelobe level. A 32-channel OPA has been designed and demonstrated with the amplitude distribution determined by preferred Chebyshev method. The experimental results indicate that the sidelobe suppression ratio (SLSR) can be up to 25.3 dB. The measured field of view (FOV) is 84° × 13° with divergence of 2.8° × 1.7°. Furthermore, the frequency-modulated continuous-wave (FMCW) based ranging has been also demonstrated experimentally by utilizing the OPA as the transmitter.

An Off-Grid Compressive Sensing Algorithm Based on Sparse Bayesian Learning for RFPA Radar

In the application of Compressive Sensing (CS) theory for sidelobe suppression in Random Frequency and Pulse Repetition Interval Agile (RFPA) radar, the off−grid issues affect the performance of target parameter estimation in RFPA radar. Therefore, to address this issue, this paper presents an off−grid CS algorithm named Refinement and Generalized Double Pareto (GDP) distribution based on Sparse Bayesian Learning (RGDP−SBL) for RFPA radar that utilizes a coarse−to−fine grid refinement approach, allowing precise and cost−effective signal recovery while mitigating the impact of off−grid issues on target parameter estimation. To obtain a high-precision signal recovery, especially in scenarios involving closely spaced targets, the RGDP−SBL algorithm makes use of a three−level hierarchical prior model. Furthermore, the RGDP−SBL algorithm efficiently utilizes diagonal elements during the coarse search and exploits the convexity of the grid energy curve during the fine search, therefore significantly reducing computational complexity. Simulation results demonstrate that the RGDP−SBL algorithm significantly improves signal recovery performance while maintaining low computational complexity in multiple scenarios for RFPA radar.

Grating-lobe-free optical phased array with 2-D circular sparse array aperture and high-efficiency phase calibration.

An optical phased array (OPA) with 2-D circular sparse array aperture has been proposed and demonstrated in the silicon integrated photonic platform. The sparse distribution of the antenna array can realize no grating lobes in 2-D full field of view (FOV). To achieve fast and accurate phase calibration for OPA, an improved rotating element electric field vector algorithm based on golden section search method (GSS-REV) has also been proposed and verified. The 32-element antenna sparse distribution of the proposed OPA is designed and fabricated. A far-field beam steering measurement across 20° × 20° range features the side lobe suppression ratio (SLSR) of larger than 4.81 dB and a full width at half-maximum (FWHM) of approximately 0.63° × 0.59°. The resolvable points are derived to be ∼1076. The OPA chip has also been demonstrated on range measurement with frequency-modulated continuous-wave (FMCW) system.

Combined Truncated Sidelobe Suppression and Iterative Adaptive MAP Beamforming for Ultrasound Imaging

Combined Truncated Sidelobe Suppression and Iterative Adaptive MAP Beamforming for Ultrasound Imaging

Terahertz ISAR Imaging With Nonrigid Vibration Compensation and Sidelobe Suppression of Space Targets

Terahertz ISAR Imaging With Nonrigid Vibration Compensation and Sidelobe Suppression of Space Targets

Through-the-Wall Radar Imaging Grating-Lobe and Sidelobe Suppression Method Based on Imaginary Sign Coherence Factor

Through-the-Wall Radar Imaging Grating-Lobe and Sidelobe Suppression Method Based on Imaginary Sign Coherence Factor

Spatially Variant Filtering Network Based on Generalized Optimal Constraints for Sidelobe Suppression in SAR Images

Spatially Variant Filtering Network Based on Generalized Optimal Constraints for Sidelobe Suppression in SAR Images

Sidelobe Suppression of Scanning Synthetic Beams Based on Coincidence Imaging Array Radar

Sidelobe Suppression of Scanning Synthetic Beams Based on Coincidence Imaging Array Radar

Joint Iterative Adaptive Approach for Sidelobe Suppression and Migration Correction of Migrating Targets

Joint Iterative Adaptive Approach for Sidelobe Suppression and Migration Correction of Migrating Targets

A Sigle-Layer Dual-Band Shared-Aperture Antenna With High Gain and Sidelobe Suppression Based on High-Order Mode for Vehicular Communications

A Sigle-Layer Dual-Band Shared-Aperture Antenna With High Gain and Sidelobe Suppression Based on High-Order Mode for Vehicular Communications

Sidelobe Suppression for High-Resolution SAR Imagery Based on Spectral Reshaping and Feature Statistical Difference

Sidelobe Suppression for High-Resolution SAR Imagery Based on Spectral Reshaping and Feature Statistical Difference

Twelve-channel LAN wavelength-division multiplexer on lithium niobate.

A twelve-channel local-area-network (LAN) wavelength-division multiplexing (LWDM) filter is proposed and demonstrated with a uniform channel spacing of 4.5 nm (800 GHz) in the O-band of 1270-1330 nm by using x-cut lithium-niobate-on-insulator (LNOI) photonic waveguides for the first time. The present LWDM filter consists of twelve single-channel bandpass filters based on multimode waveguide gratings (MWGs) assisted with a TE0/TE1 mode (de)multiplexer. In particular, two stages of MWGs in cascade are introduced for each single-channel bandpass filter, in order to achieve high sidelobe suppression ratios, thus reducing interchannel crosstalk. For the fabricated twelve-channel LWDM filter, all the channels have very excellent box-like spectral responses with low excess losses of ∼0.6 dB, broad 1-dB bandwidths of ∼2.9-3.4 nm (which is close to 75 % of the channel spacing), and ultra-low interchannel crosstalk of <-40 dB in experiments. In addition, the present device is highly tolerant to the random variations of the etching depth (±20 nm) and the grating waveguide width (±20 nm) of the LNOI photonic waveguides, showing great potential for high-capacity WDM systems.

Design of optical phased array with low-sidelobe beam steering in thin film lithium niobate

Optical beam-steering devices are crucial components of complex optical control systems, which are widely used in diverse information-processing applications. Optical phased arrays (OPAs) as the promising beam-steering devices, have proven to alleviate current performance limitations in beam steering devices for ultra-small solid-state light detection and rangings (LiDARs) and free-space communication systems. The high electro-optic (EO) coefficient (γ33 = 30.9 pm/V) of lithium niobate (LiNbO3, LN) can be a useful platform for phase tuning of the OPAs, which is conducive to enable phase shifting for non-mechanical beam steering with high-speed and low power consumption. The design, configurations and LN-OPA corresponding performances are discussed in this paper. The OPA consisting of different waveguides array is optimized with a side lobe suppression lower than - 10 dB at the wavelength of 1.55 μm. Meanwhile, the OPA with grating emitters or adding silica cavity further improves the deflection quality of the beam. Then optical beam steering with an angle of 50° in one dimension controlled by the LN-OPA has been demonstrated. The proposed OPA on the LN platform in this work might hold significances for advanced LiDAR schemes based on EO tuning.

Ultra-low SLL slotted waveguide antenna array using Chebyshev aperture distribution function for MM-wave tracking radar applications

A non-uniform aperture distribution slotted waveguide antenna is presented. The slotted waveguide antenna array is chosen for its ease for aperture distribution control and the flexibility of gain adjustment. Multiple aperture distribution functions, including uniform, binominal, Chebyshev, and Blackman, have been extensively investigated to achieve the best possible side lobe suppression. These distribution functions have been converted to slot displacement from the center line of the antenna. Number of slots in the proposed array is chosen to be eight to satisfy the required gain for mm-wave radar tracking application. The proposed antenna is simulated and optimized using the full wave simulator package (CSTMWS). Rounded edge slots are adapted instead of the sharp ones, as they are more applicable for the CNC fabrication process. An eight-slot waveguide antenna is fabricated and gold-plated, considering the Chebyshev distribution approach. The proposed design achieves very stable radiation characteristics and performance over the operating bandwidth, which extends from 33.6 GHz up to 35.9 GHz. At 35 GHz, the total realized gain of the overall antenna is found to be 13.4 dBi, with an overall radiation efficiency of 95.21 %. An obvious low SLL of −30 dB is obtained at the frequency of 35 GHz. The low side lobe level parameter is very crucial for radar applications as it enhances the overall target SNR and reduces false target observations. The pre-stated antenna characteristics make it a good candidate for mm-wave radar applications and point-to-point communications (P2P).

Synthesis of Large Ultra-wideband Sparse Circular Planar Arrays Based on Rotationally Symmetric Structure

This article aims to improve the synthesis efficiency and radiation performance of large ultra-wideband (UWB) rotationally symmetric sparse circular planar arrays by using a modified differential evolution algorithm (MDEA). In the proposed MDEA, we adopt a new encoding mechanism in which an individual represents an element position expressed in polar coordinates. Importantly, such an encoding mechanism can facilitate the multiplication calculation for the array factor in the individual being updated while making it easier to meet the given minimum element spacing constraint. Moreover, to cater to the new encoding mechanism, some low-dimensional evolution operators are introduced to avoid the prematurity. In particular, the UWB rotationally symmetric sparse planar array synthesis problem is transformed into the sidelobe suppression problem of the array pattern at the highest frequency under the given array aperture, and the minimum spacing constraints is used to guarantee enough space to place physical UWB antenna elements. Two synthesis examples of UWB sparse planar arrays based on rotationally symmetric structures are presented. The results show that the peak sidelobe level (PSL) obtained by the proposed MDEA is significantly lower than the results obtained by some existing algorithms in an acceptable CPU time, which proves the effectiveness and superiority of the proposed MDEA.