Sidelobes control of solid-state array antennas

An aperture design is described for two-dimensional (2-D) solid-state phased arrays that transmits low sidelobes. A five-step amplitude distribution for the aperture was optimized by a gradient search method to achieve -36-dB peak sidelobes. The optimized configuration was applied to a sample array of 36 columns by 14 rows, with 400 modules divided into five groups of power levels. The array performance with the actual module lattice structure taken into account is discussed. Gain drop and sidelobe degradations due to random amplitude and phase errors are also studied