A stochastic approach to optimizing the aperture and the number of elements of an aperiodic array

In this paper, a synthesis method aimed at designing an aperiodic sparse array to be used together with a conventional beamformer is proposed. Simulated annealing, which is a probabilistic methodology to solve combinatorial optimization problems, has been utilized to optimize the positions and the weight coefficients of the elements of the array in order to improve the antenna performances and to obtain a beam pattern that meets given requirements. At the same time and in parallel, the minimization of the number of array elements and of the spatial aperture of the array are successfully performed, thanks to the exploitation of simulated annealing. Several results are presented, showing a notable improvement in the array characteristics and performances over those reported in the literature.