A new perspective in the synthesis of reconfigurable linear or circularly symmetric array antennas

An innovative and general point of view is presented to the optimal, mask-constrained power pattern synthesis of array antennas able to dynamically reconfigure their radiation behaviour by just modifying the phase of excitations or other suitable parameters. The perspective leads to an effective design approach able to deal in an effective fashion with easily-reconfigurable arrays, including phase-only reconfigurable isophoric linear sparse arrays, arrays lying on a regular lattice, and circularly symmetric arrays. By taking advantage from basic results achieved in the optimal synthesis of pencil beams and shaped beams, the approach guarantees the achievement of high performance without recurring to global optimization schemes.