On the Forming of Orthogonal Beams by Planar Array Antennas

A general approach to determination of geometrical parameters of planar array antennas designed for forming of orthogonal beams steered in the nodes of a Cartesian periodic lattice specified in the space of direction cosines is proposed. The proof of orthogonality of the complex amplitude distributions and appropriate array factors for the arrays constructed according to the proposed approach is given. The role of the array element patterns in providing the beam pattern orthogonality is underlined. The issue of the number of the array elements necessary for forming of the specified number of beams is discussed. A few demonstrative examples of the beam clusters and appropriate configurations of the arrays where the number of the elements is equal to the specified number of the beams are considered.