An iteration method of sidelobe suppressing of unequally spaced array

An iteration method is presented for unequally spaced array. In every iteration process, the adjacent element spacing is optimized by Differential Evolution with Global and Local neighborhoods algorithm (DEGL) to suppress the sidelobe level. Then the radiation patterns of the elements are updated once in every iteration step after the array model is reconstructed including the dimension of element and the distances between adjacent elements according to the optimization results and simulated by HFSS. The method dispenses with the time consuming of full wave analysis, taking the effects of the mutual coupling between the elements including both the radiation pattern and VSWR of the element in the array into account. A 16-element array is designed and fabricated to validate the proposed method.