A. P. Nikolaev1, V. S. Terentyeva2
1 JSC «All-Russian Scientific and Research Institute of Radio Engineering» (Moscow, Russia)
2 Lomonosov Moscow State University (Moscow, Russia)

1 apnika@mail.ru, 2 v.s.terentyeva@yandex.ru

The article explores the possibility of lowering the level of grating lobes in the antenna pattern using an aperiodic monotile for partitioning the phased array antenna (PAA) into subarrays.

First, the PAA is divided into aperiodic monotiles. Numerical results of the amplitude, the maximum grating lobe level and the average sidelobe level of the antenna pattern for two cases are obtained and presented. In each of two cases, the maximum grating lobe level of the antenna pattern of the PAA with aperiodic partitioning is lower compared to the PAA with regular subarrays. The presented plot show that the average sidelobe level has increased. Plots showing the dependence of the maximum sidelobe level, the average sidelobe level and the amplitude of the antenna pattern on the deviation of the subarray antenna pattern in azimuth and elevation are presented. It is shown that when the subarray radiation pattern is steered away from boresight, the grating lobe level of the PAA with aperiodic subarray arrangement is lower than that of the PAA with regular subarrays.

If Hamming weighting function with a lower sidelobe level is applied, the positive effect of aperiodic subarrays increases, and the diffraction sidelobes are reduced more significantly. Conversely, in the absence of weighting, the advantage of aperiodic subarrays over regular ones decreases. The level of grating lobes depends little on the subarray size. Changing the positions of the subarray boundaries has virtually no effect on the grating lobe level. As the PAA size increases, the grating lobe level decreases slightly.

Partitioning the PAA into subarrays in the form of aperiodic monotiles allows the level of grating lobes in the antenna pattern to be lowered compared to the PAA with regular subarrays. However, reduction of the grating lobes level is achieved at the cost of certain increase of grating lobes average level. The use of subarrays in form of aperiodic monotiles is more convenient compared to known irregular subarrays since all subarrays have the same shape and size. The PAA organized into aperiodic monotiles can be useful in systems that are more sensitive to grating lobes than to increased sidelobes level of antenna pattern.

Nikolaev A.P., Terentyeva V.S. Phased array antenna with a low grating lobe level in the radiation pattern, composed of subarrays arranged as aperiodic monotiles // Antennas. 2026. № 4. P. 14–21. DOI: https://doi.org/10.18127/j03209601-202604-02

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