An excitation matching approach to monopulse linear array synthesis with a sub-arrayed element feed network

Use of the two-module feed network for the monopulse linear array places restrictions on the performance of the monopulse array. This can be improved somewhat by utilizing subarraying to increase the number of degrees of freedom above that available with the two-module-network. A technique referred to as excitation matching is given for synthesizing an array with such a subarrayed feed network. The idea behind the excitation-matching concept is to convert the synthesis problem into one of finding weighting values for each subarray such that these values minimize some norm of the residual vector, which is due to the difference between the weightings found and their optimum possible values. Of the three norms investigated, it is reported that the L/sub infinity / norm always results in both the poorest sidelobe performance and broadcast beamwidth. The sidelobes obtained through use of the L/sub 1/ norm are consistently higher than those for L/sub 2/ norm.<>