A. Yu. Larin1, A. V. Litvinov2, S. E. Mishchenko3, A. S. Pomysov4, V. V. Shatskiy5
1–5 FSUE “Rostov-on-Don Research Institute of Radio Communication” (Rostov-on-Don, Russia)

The active phased array antenna (APAA) uses the energy of an external source, which is always limited. In this regard, the energy resources of the APAA should be spent rationally and the energy losses that arise in the signal receiving and processing paths should be reduced. For example, in the process of coherent accumulation of pulse energy in the receiving antenna, weighting functions are used, which lead to energy losses of the received signal of the order of 3–5 dB. The need to use weighting functions is due to the desire to reduce the side lobes of the correlation function, masking weak signals of detected objects against the background of weaker signals.

The purpose of the article is to reduce or to eliminate energy losses when using weighting functions in the course of correlation processing of signals from APAA.

The method for correlation function side lobes suppressing when signal processing in the APAA has been developed. The method is based on the controlling of the electronic keys of the channels of the APAA in accordance with a given weight function. The electric keys determine the active channels of the antenna array participating when forming each probe pulse.

The use of the proposed method allows, depending on the selected weighting function, to reduce the energy consumption of the source of the APAA by 3...5 dB at a low level of the side lobes of the correlation function formed during the processing of received signals.

Larin A.Yu., Litvinov A.V., Mishchenko S.E., Pomysov A.S., Shatskiy V.V. Method for correlation function side lobes suppressing when signal processing in the active phased array antenna. Antennas. 2022. № 2. P. 21–28. DOI: https://doi.org/10.18127/ j03209601-202202-03 (in Russian)

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