Suppression of phaser quantization lobes for large flat phased array antennas

A method for decollimation of phaser quantization lobes of phased array antennas, which is due to finite and relatively large discrete phase control devices, is presented. It is shown that application of additional random or pseudorandom fixed phase shift on each radiating element before actual phase control could break the phaser quantization lobes up into a series of low-level sidelobes and reduce it by more than 10 dB for some scan angles. Application of the proposed technique for a circular polarized phased array antenna is considered as a numerical example. A calculation of directivity degradation and average sidelobe level increase with respect to phase discretization with the technique applied as well as pattern shape with and without the technique applied is presented.