Planar thinned array design by hybrid analytical-stochastic optimization

The integration of analytical strategies and global optimisation techniques is proposed to address the limitations of current almost difference sets (ADSs) methods for thinning planar apertures. Three design problems associated to these limitations are formulated and the customisation of the optimisation operators to exploit the a-priori information provided by ADS sequences is presented. A numerical validation, including full-wave simulations and comparisons with state-of-the-art methods, is illustrated.