Synthesis of Wideband Reconfigurable Array Antennas for Monopulse Radar Applications

A new approach to the bandwidth maximization of reconfigurable antenna arrays for monopulse radar applications is proposed and tested. The provided radiating systems allow switching the radiation behavior from sum to difference patterns (and vice versa) while sharing the excitation amplitudes of a user-decided set of radiating elements. Furthermore, the proposed design procedure guarantees the maximum possible bandwidth performance once the overall antenna size, the desired beamwidth, sidelobe level, and slope in the target direction of the generated power patterns are fixed. The synthesis problem is cast and solved as a sequence of convex programming optimizations, and hence the maximization of performances is attained with advantages in terms of computational times as well as convergence to the global optimum. The given theory is supported by numerical experiments including arrays with ultra-wideband performances.