Pattern degradation due to random errors in active phased array antennas

The authors analyze effects of random errors in the active modules on the total radiation pattern of an array. In particular, they study the effects of errors in the amplitude of the currents in each element, errors in the current phase angle, missing elements due to catastrophic failure, errors in the radiation pattern of each element, and errors in the interelement spacing. The effects of some of these random errors on the radiation pattern of a linear array were analyzed. The degraded radiation pattern is shown to be a function of the variances of the amplitude and phase errors as well as the probability of missing or operational elements.<>