New antenna weighting method for adaptable beamwidth with zero sidelobe constraints

For sidelobe suppression design of antennas, weighting with window functions has been traditionally used. The antenna gain is degraded if a low sidelobe level is sought, so that expansion of the antenna beamwidth is inevitable. Also, there have been discussions of using the convergent calculation in the derivation of a window function that realizes desired characteristics such as sidelobe‐free conditions, but it has not been clear whether the theoretically maximum antenna gain is realized. This paper presents a method of analytical derivation of a weight vector satisfying the maximum achievable antenna gain while the desired beamwidth is obtained under the null sidelobe constraint for the sidelobe region output. In addition, we demonstrate the effectiveness of the method by simulation examples. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Electron Comm Jpn Pt 1, 90(9): 35–44, 2007; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/ecja.20370