Antenna aperture tapers for regulatory tradeoff

Transmit antennas in radio communications need to conform to regulatory limits on off-axis emissions, which place constraints on the shape of the radiation pattern. These constraints can be satisfied by applying an amplitude taper to the aperture excitation, but for a fixed power source, any such taper reduces the psd (power spectral density) that the antenna can achieve on the main beam. In this paper we consider the design of taper functions to meet limitations on off-axis emissions with the least impact on psd. The use of these tapers can result in reduced antenna size, improved power balance, and/or increased usable system bandwidth.