A.S. Petrov1, V.A. Chikov2

1,2 JSC «NPO Lavochkina»(Moscow region, Russia)

For traditional APAA with a rectangular and triangular grid of nodes, in which partial emitters are installed, simple analytical formulas are known that express the dependence of the array radiation pattern (ARP) on the angular coordinates. If the grid of nodes is irregular, or in a regular grid there are failures of individual digits in the control elements (phase shifters, attenuators, delay lines) or in power amplifiers, then these formulas are not applicable. Therefore, it is necessary to address to general relations of additive summation of the specific contribution to the ARP of the field generated by each emitter separately. In large arrays, their number can range from several to many tens or even hundreds of thousands. Further, if it is necessary to synthesize a given type of array RP, it is necessary to form special types of the amplitude-phase distribution of the signal on the emitters. The procedures for synthesizing such distributions require hundreds or even thousands of repeated calculations of the array RP, which may require several million angular points to analyze in the upper hemisphere of radiation.

The article shows that using parallel computing with the help of programming technology on graphics processors (GPU), produced by NVIDIA and CUDA technology in a system designed to quickly create high-performance codes in the extended C language, C++ is able to speed up the calculations of the large antenna ARP by 2…3 orders of magnitude, even on standard office computers. When using modern CPUs (AMD Ryzen Threadripper PRO 3995 WX) and GPU (NVIDIA GeForce 3090), the acceleration in calculations can additionally increase by hundreds of times. At such computing speeds, even the problems of antenna synthesis and statistical analysis of the characteristics of the array RP will be solved almost in real time.

An example of a statistical estimation of the ARP parameters of a large subaperture array with 1280 emitters, used in the COSMOSkyMed system, when random failures of the inverse type occur in the phase shifter digits. The use of graphics processors allows us to solve problems such as the synthesis of an array RP having a prescribed shape, and the statistical analysis of the characteristics of the array in the event of various failure options in its elements, as well as mechanical distortions of the aperture shape, in almost real time.

Petrov A.S., Chikov V.A. Use of graphics processors to cardinally acceleration the calculation procedure of large subaperture active phased antenna arrays radiation pattern. Achievements of modern radioelectronics. 2021. V. 75. № 6. P. 19–26. DOI: https://doi.org/10.18127/j20700784-202106-02 [in Russian]

1. Boreskov A.V., Kharlamov A.A. Osnovy raboty s tekhnologiey CUDA. M.: DMK Press. 2010. [in Russian]
2. Sanders Dzh., Kendrot Edvard Tekhnologiya CUDA v primerakh. Vvedenie v programmirovanie graficheskikh protsessorov. DMK Press. 2011. [in Russian]
3. Farber Rob CUDA Application Design and Development. Elsevier. 2011.
4. Petrov A.S., Chikov V.A., Volchenkov A.S., Prilutskiy A.A. Komp'yuternaya programma dlya modelirovaniya kharakteristik subaperturnykh AFAR, ispol'zuemykh v kosmicheskikh radiolokatorakh s sintezirovannoy aperturoy. Vestnik NPO im. S.A. Lavochkina. 2020. № 1. S. 45–52. [in Russian]
5. Volchenkov A.S., Petrov A.S., Prilutskiy A.A., Chikov V.A. Pobochnye glavnye maksimumy v subaperturnykh antennykh reshetkakh kosmicheskogo bazirovaniya. Vestnik NPO im. S.A. Lavochkina. 2018. № 2. S. 100–106. [in Russian]
6. Petrov A.S., Prilutskiy A.A., Volchenkov A.S. Formirovanie subaperturnoy struktury aktivnoy fazirovannoy antennoy reshetki kosmicheskogo radiolokatora s sintezirovannoy aperturoy i vybor parametrov ee upravlyayushchikh elementov. Vestnik NPO im. S.A. Lavochkina. 2018. № 3. S. 81–90. [in Russian]
7. Mailloux R.J. Phased array antenna handbook. Artech House. 1994.
8. Hansen R.C. Phased array antennas. John Wiley&Sons. 2001.
9. Carver K.R., Cooper W.K., Stutzman W.L. Beam Pointing Errors of Planar Phased Arrays. IEEE Trans. on Antennas and Propagation. 1973. V. AP-21. № 3. R. 199–202.
10. Mailloux R.J. Array Grating Lobes Due to Periodic Phase, Amplitude and Time Delay Quantization. IEEE Trans. on Antennas and Propagation. 1984. V. AP-32. № 12. R. 1364–1368.
11. Yajima M., Hasegawa T. Beam pointing error of wideband planar phased array antennas with reduced true-time-delay devices. IEEE Conf. on Communication. 2006. V. 9. R. 4161–4166.
12. Capuzi A., Rivola S., Di Lazzaro M. COSMO SKYMED Experience Synthetic Aperture Radar Activities in Italy. Thales Alenia Space: 2007.