Synthesis of monopulse sub-arrayed linear and planar array antennas with optimized sidelobes

In this paper, three approaches for the synthesis of the optimal compromise between sum and difference patterns for sub-arrayed linear and planar arrays are presented. The synthesis problem is formulated as the definition of the sub-array configuration and the corresponding sub-array weights to minimize the maximum level of the sidelobes of the compromise difference pattern. In the first approach, the definition of the unknowns is carried out simultaneously according to a global optimization schema. Differently, the other two approaches are based on a hybrid optimization procedures, exploiting the convexity of the problem with respect to the sub-array weights. In the numerical validation, representative results are shown to assess the effectiveness of the proposed approaches. Comparisons with previously published results are reported and discussed, as well.