Optimal Element Plar-ement In Conformal Beamforming

An important problem in the design of some array beam- formers is to find the number of array elements and their spatial locations necessary to meet a given response. In this paper we present a new technique for simultaneous determination of the minimum number of array elements, their locations and the shading weights necessary to meet some response specified in terms of a set of linear inequality constraints. Results are presented for the design of optimally sparse linear and circular arrays for narrow band applications.