A Deterministic Approach to the Synthesis of Pencil Beams through Planar Thinned Arrays

This paper presents a simple and innovative deterministic approach to the synthesis of uniformaly excited thinned arrays able to fulfill constraints concerning both the sidelobe level and the value of the radiated far field (and/or of the directivity) in a set of given directions. Starting from a reference regular (periodic or even aperiodic) lattice and from an optimal continuous reference source fulfilling at best the required specifications, the proposed approach finds out both the number and the location of the isophoric (i.e., equi-amplitude) radiating elements to withdraw in a fast and effective fashion. In fact, it is based on a deterministic best-fitting procedure which takes inspiration from existing density taper techniques. Examples are provided with reference to the synthesis of large circular arrays and confirm the interest of the proposed procedure.