Large Array Thinning by Means of Deterministic Binary Sequences

A deterministic approach for the design of thinned arrays is numerically assessed when dealing with extremely large apertures. The method exploits the features of analytical binary sequences with known autocorrelation properties called almost difference sets (ADSs) to efficiently synthesize arbitrary-sized thinned layouts. Performances and computational issues of the ADS technique are analyzed also in the presence of mutual coupling effects and compared to those of a state-of-the-art stochastic optimization method. The results show that the analytical thinning is far more numerically efficient for large layouts than the optimization approach despite a similar sidelobe control.