Electrical compensation for deformed antenna arrays and its experimental verification

Abstract

In the service of antenna arrays, especially for the large-scale antenna arrays, the deformation of the antenna structure is inevitable due to the influence of many structural factors. Therefore, effective compensation for the electrical performance of the antenna is one of the important means to ensure its normal and stable operation. An electrical compensation method based on the genetic algorithm to change the phase of the radiating element is proposed, which also considers the quantization error of the phase shifter. Under the 0.46𝜆 deformation condition, the left side lobe level of the horizontal radiometer with the worst performance deterioration is compensated by 2.15 dB, reaching the ideal state before deformation. The objectives and constraints in the optimization model can be adjusted according to the actual work requirements. The correctness and feasibility of proposed method are verified by an antenna array with 8 × 32 radiating elements.