Comparison of antenna transmit weighting functions for active arrays

Most antenna distribution functions optimize the pattern without regard for the aperture power radiated. In the transmit mode of active array antennas it is important to transmit as much power as possible while still providing some type of control to the outer sidelobes (particularly for low probability of intercept requirements). The tailoring and signal processing of the antenna signal can be done on receive. In a constrained least squares (CLS) distribution, most of the elements at the center of the array are set to their maximum value (no attenuation) with the outer elements receiving some type of taper. A method for generating CLS distributions given constraints on both the peak amplitude of the elements and the total effective radiated voltage (ERV) of the entire distribution has been discussed previously. In this paper we compare CLS distributions and patterns to other related distributions for linear arrays. We also compare CLS distributions and patterns using several alternate forms of the least-squares weighting function.