Tolerance Analysis of Antenna Array Pattern and Array Synthesis in the Presence of Excitation Errors

Abstract

This paper analyzes array pattern tolerance against excitation errors. The nonprobabilistic interval analysis algorithm is used for tolerance analysis of the nonideal uniform linear array in this work. Toward this purpose, corresponding interval models of the power pattern functions are established, respectively, with the consideration of the amplitude errors, phase errors, or both simultaneously, in antenna arrays. The tolerance for the amplitude-phase error of the main function parameters including the beamwidth, sidelobe level, and the directivity is simulated by computer according to the indicators and the actual requirements. Accordingly, the worst admissible performance of an array can be evaluated, which may provide theoretical reference for optimal antenna array design. As for the problem of array synthesis in the presence of various array errors, interval analysis-convex programming (IA-CP) is presented. Simulation results show that the proposed IA-CP based synthesis technique is robust for the amplitude and phase errors.