On the optimal synthesis of phase-only reconfigurable antenna arrays

An innovative approach to the optimal synthesis of fixed-geometry linear array antennas able to dynamically reconfigure their radiation pattern is presented and assessed. The proposed method is aimed at synthesizing reconfigurable arrays generating both pencil beams and shaped beams by means of a phase-only control strategy. By taking advantage from the results achieved in the separate and optimal synthesis of pencil and shaped patterns, the proposed procedure is able to jointly determine the common amplitude weights and the various set of phase excitation coefficients in a fast and effective fashion. A set of preliminary results concerning applications of actual relevance are shown and discussed to point out the effectiveness of the proposed approach.