Beam-Pattern Calibration in a Realistic System of Phased-Array Antennas via the Implementation of a Genetic Algorithm With a Measurement System

This paper presents an effective optimization procedure to calibrate the deviations of beam patterns radiated from phased arrays of antennas. The pattern distortions occur from the discretization of the radio-frequency (RF) components' output and the residue errors in amplitudes and phases from manufacturing discrepancies. This technique implements a genetic algorithm (GA) with an antenna measurement facility, and allows one to optimize the radiation patterns by using the actual phase and amplitude states of the RF components. The optimization variables are the control codes of the RF components, which are more direct and applicable to the GA as binary codes, rather than the phases and amplitudes of the elemental excitations. The systematic procedure and demonstration examples are presented to validate the feasibility.