Some properties and examples of random listening arrays

Array configurations having irregular instead of periodic interelernent spacing have been discovered to have many useful properties. "Random Arrays", whose element position coordinates, and therefore array properties such as sidelobe level, SNR gains and directivity index, are random variables, have proven to be a useful tool for the design of irregularly spaced arrays when the stochastic transformation from position coordinates to array performance indices is made. A new concept of array deployment is presented whose performance is explicitly related to the ensemble properties of a random array, as opposed to a specific configuration. General effects of array parameters on performance indices are presented for the specific case of a planar array aimed in the array plane. These effects are illustrated with examples.