Abstract:

We have developed a set of algorithms and software tools to help an antenna designer interactively explore the space of possible subarray positions in a sparse linear phase array, for the purpose of designing antennas that minimize the maximum sidelobe level of the array response. This paper presents two new results: (1) a fast search method for the optimal subarray positions for a given array specification, and (2) a method for simultaneously optimizing a family of arrays over a range of a given array design parameter. The first search method may be run offline in a few minutes on a desktop computer, or may be run interactively with input from the designer. The results from this method are compared to known global optimal solutions generated previously by exhaustive search on a supercomputer cluster. In these cases, the fast search method almost always found the global optimum in just a few minutes. the second method, for optimizing array configurations over a range of a design parameter, is demonstrated for optimizing a family of arrays over a range of total array size. It generates near-optimal configurations over the range of array sizes. The families of antenna configurations generated using this second method may also be explored interactively with a graphical interface.