An effective excitation matching method for the synthesis of optimal compromises between sum and difference patterns in planar arrays

In this paper, the extension of the Contiguous Partition Method (CPM) from linear to planar arrays is described and assessed. By exploiting some properties of the solution space, the generation of compromise sum-difference patterns is obtained through an optimal excitation matching procedure based on a combinatorial method. The searching of the solution is carried out thanks to an efficient path-searching algorithm aimed at exploring the solution space represented in terms of a graph. A set of representative results are reported for the assessment as well as for comparison purposes.