APPLICATION OF RETRODIRECTIVE BEAMS TO ACHIEVE LOW SIDELOBE LEVELS INSMALL PHASED-ARRAYS

Synthesis of beams with low sidelobe levels is a difficult problem for the case of small phased arrays with few elements. Mutual coupling be tween elements means that conventional weighting algorithms are not ap plicable. A technique is presented that calculates a complex weight ve ctor for a five element linear array, giving a reduced sidelobe beam p attern. Sidelobes are reduced by the addition of retrodirective beams to the quiescent beam pattern. No knowledge of the coupling coefficien ts or element radiation patterns is required.