Array configuration optimization for one-dimensional nonuniform aperture synthesis radiometers

For one dimensional large aperture synthesis radiometers (ASRs), the low redundancy linear arrays (LRLAs) are usually the choice for the reason of the lowest system complexity. However, the number of LRLAs is very few, which makes the antenna arrangement of LRLAs inflexible. In this paper, the array configuration optimization for AFF-based nonuniform array is proposed. The AFF-based nonuniform array after the array configuration optimization is called the optimized nonuniform array (ONA). The method how to find out the ONAs is introduced. In numerical results, some examples of ONA are given. The numerical result demonstrates that the performance of ONAs is almost equivalent to LRLAs. Since the antenna positions of ONA are non-integers, in fact, the number of ONAs is infinite in theory, which can be a supplement to the LRLAs in practical applications.