A smoothness measure for antenna pattern synthesis

An alternative method is proposed for measuring the relative effect of mutual coupling on arrays. A smoothness measure of the excitation vector is defined that can be used to find that particular excitation among several possibilities which is least susceptible to mutual coupling. Hence, in synthesis algorithms where more than one excitation vector satisfies the requirements desired, the smoothness measure can be used to find the excitation which implies minimum mutual coupling effects. Results on some simple linear arrays are shown to provide an indication of the behavior of the smoothness index.<>