Analysis of Performance Enhancement of Clustered-Based Phased Arrays Employing Mixed Antenna Element Factor

A novel strategy for the design and optimization of large-scan phased arrays is proposed. Active electronic beam-scanning antennas offer an unparalleled set of degrees of freedom, but they can be expensive, require complex radio frequency frontends, a suitable thermal management, and generally undergo a loss in directivity due to the pattern shape of the unit radiating element. A solution to these problems can be offered by an approach that reduces the number of transmit/receive modules (TRMs) and phase shifters (PSs) by a simple and fast clustering strategy based on Penrose tessellation that operates on the regular lattice of the radiating elements. More importantly, the proposed scheme adopts a mixed-mode element factor that proves to be effective in guaranteeing a remarkable scan efficiency and robustness with respect to array elements failures. The optimization process aims to maximize the minimum gain along the main beam during the scan as well as minimizing the peak sidelobe level (PSLL), while reducing the number of TRMs.