A fast and novel method of pattern synthesis for non-uniform phased array antennas

Weighting elements to achieve radiation patterns with desired characteristics is a classical work in phased array antennas. These characteristics can be low sidelobe level, narrow beamwidth, high directivity, pattern nulling in special angle and etc. For each of these characteristics, different methods have been introduced. Most of methods have been presented for uniform arrays, however there are lots of methods to obtain a desired pattern for antennas with non-uniform element distances. The problem with these methods is complexity or not very good results. In this paper, fast and easy methods based on Least Square Error that leads to good results are presented. In addition, weighting of thinned arrays as a special case of non-uniform arrays is studied here. Mono-pulse pattern synthesis (most important method of angular positioning) in thinned arrays employing the presented method is the other aim of this paper. Simulation results represent performance of developed algorithm.