A synthesis method for bidimensional apertures

A generalization of the Woodward-Lawson synthesis method is introduced for a wide class of apertures (including as particular cases the rectangular, the rhombic, and the hexagonal). By resorting to a rather general type of bidimensional Fourier series expansion, the aperture distribution is obtained as a superposition of orthogonal constant amplitude linearly phased components, whose complex amplitude coefficients are the values of the radiation pattern in a regular lattice of "cardinal points" on which the desired pattern function is exactly matched As a numerical application of the method, two examples of pattern synthesis with a hexagonal aperture are treated in detail.