AESA Theory

AESAs provide the capability of commandable, agile, high gain beams, which is advantageous for applications such as radar, weather surveillance, and imaging. When designing AESAs, there are basic fundamentals that need to be understood for a successful design (i.e., grating lobes, beamwidth, instantaneous bandwidth, etc.). In this chapter, the authors cover in detail these fundamental principles. They derive the pattern expression for a one‐dimensional AESA. The authors also look at pattern plots while varying the element amplitude distribution, frequency, number of elements, and scan angle. In order to characterize the conformal array in terms of pattern distribution, sidelobe levels, and gain performance, it is important to understand how to model a non‐planar array. An AESA is composed of antenna elements that are arranged according to a defined element spacing. The authors also show an AESA with a circular grid.