A Review of Synthesis Techniques for Phased Antenna Arrays in Wireless Communications and Remote Sensing

Abstract

Electronically controlled antenna arrays, such as reconfigurable and phased antenna arrays, are essential elements of high-frequency 5G communication hardware. These antenna arrays are aimed at delivering specified communication scenarios and channel characteristics in the mm-wave parts of the 5G spectrum. At the same time, several challenges are associated with the development of such antenna structures, and these challenges mainly originate from their intended mass production, contemporary manufacturing technologies, integration with active RF chains, compact size, dense circuitry, and limitations in postmanufacturing tuning. Consequently, 5G antenna array designers are presented with contradictory design requirements and constraints. Furthermore, these designers need to handle large numbers of designable parameters of the antenna array models, which can be computationally expensive, especially for repetitive and adaptive simulations that are required in design optimization and tuning. Antenna array synthesis, namely, the process of finding positions, orientation, and excitation of the array radiators, is a challenging yet crucial part of antenna array development. This process ensures that the performance requirements of the antenna array are met. Therefore, there is a need for reliable yet fast automated computer-aided design (CAD) and synthesis tools that can support the development of 5G antenna array solutions, from the initial prototyping stage to the final manufacturing tolerance analysis. This paper presents an overview of recent advances in antenna array synthesis from the viewpoint of their applicability to the design of electronically reconfigurable and phased antenna arrays for wireless communications and remote sensing.

An effective beamformer for interference suppression without knowing the direction

“…Some pattern nulling methods including weight control, position-only control [1]- [3] and array thinning [4]- [6] have been adopted to suppress interferences with their benefits and drawbacks. In the wireless revolution, adaptive beamformers based on weight control methods for interference suppression are of great interest [7]- [9].…”

Maximizing Antenna Array Aperture Efficiency for Footprint Patterns

“…The vast majority of works regarding footprint pattern synthesis use rectangular, circular, or elliptical antennas independently of the shape of the desired pattern ([ 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 ] being some representative examples). Even some works related to reflectarrays suffer from this issue [ 11 , 12 ].…”

Optimizing Radiation Patterns of Thinned Arrays with Deep Nulls Fixed through Their Representation in the Schelkunoff Unit Circle and a Simulated Annealing Algorithm

“…Nowadays, suppressing power in precise angular regions of the radiation pattern of high-performance antennas still represents a challenge for the antenna community. In such a way, to have control over these above-mentioned parameters by altering the element excitations and configuration, results in a complex problem with a variety of approaches [ 8 , 9 , 10 ]. Numerical optimization methods are commonly used in order to find the appropriate solution with the desired characteristics without extensively checking all the possibilities in the solution space.…”