A FLEXIBLE ARRAY SYNTHESIS METHOD USING QUADRATIC-PROGRAMMING

In this paper, a highly flexible synthesis method for an arbitrary arr ay is proposed to best approximate a desired array pattern in a minimu m-mean-square-error sense. The basic idea of the technique is to form a quadratic program with its cost function given by the mean-square er ror between the array response and a properly selected pattern describ ed by a known mathematical function. This quadratic program can be a c onstrained or unconstrained optimization problem depending on the requ irements of the desired array pattern. In formulating the quadratic pr ogram, no assumption has been made on the pin/phase response or charac teristics of the individual array elements. Therefore, one can synthes ize an array of arbitrary shape to any appropriate pattern with the ch aracteristic of the array elements taken into consideration as long as one is able to model the array accurately. In this paper, the propose d method is used to synthesize arrays of different shapes, linear as w ell as planar arrays (including rectangular and circular planar arrays ), using a Chebyshev polynomial or zero function as a design template, to illustrate the feasibility of the proposed method.