Synthesis of large monopulse linear arrays through a tree-based optimal excitations matching

In this letter, the synthesis of large arrays for monopulse tracking applications is addressed by means of a simple and effective subarraying technique. Towards this purpose, the synthesis problem is recast as the search of an optimal path in a noncomplete binary tree by exploiting some relationships between independently optimal sum and difference excitations. Because of a suitable reduction of the solution space and the implementation of a fast path-searching algorithm, the computational issues arising in dealing with large array aperture are properly addressed. Some numerical experiments are provided in order to assess the feasibility and the computational effectiveness of the tree-based approach.