Synthesis of Thinned Planar Arrays Using 0-1 Integer Linear Programming Method

Abstract

This paper proposes a fast optimization method for synthesizing thinned planar antenna arrays. A 0-1 integer linear programming (ILP) model was proposed for the antenna array optimization. This model mainly aims to minimize the peak sidelobe level (PSLL) and consider the design requirements of narrow beamwidth and high directivity, finally obtaining the optimal distribution of the turned “ON” element positions in the aperture. Several cases of planar array designs with different aperture sizes and scan angles were provided in the paper and compared with other popular algorithms. Numerical results showed that the new method can effectively optimize the thinned planar arrays, including large-scale arrays, while significantly reducing the computational cost and time.