Rapid method for obtaining footprint patterns for very large antenna arrays

A new antenna pattern synthesis technique that allows the design of large planar antenna array radiating footprint patterns of a specified boundary with controlled ripple and sidelobe levels is presented. The method synthesises the desired footprint as a composition of a set of circular Taylor patterns appropriately weighted with the samples of the pattern obtained after stretching or shrinking a continuous circular aperture distribution developed by the Elliott-Stern method. A footprint of continental Europe radiated by a planar array with a large number of elements shows the technique´s performance. The synthesis procedures were completed in about 1 s using a desktop computer.