Analysis and computation of circular aperture arrays with multi-step amplitude quantization

The idea of multistep amplitude quantization for circular aperture arrays is proposed to reduce the peak sidelobe level (SLL). Formulas are derived for multistep amplitude quantization, and some computer results are presented to verify the theory. It is shown that the circular aperture arrays with multistep amplitude quantization can reduce the peak SLL efficiently. With four-step amplitude coefficients in an array of about 800 elements, a maximum SLL of -35.1 dB is obtained in all cuts. The peak SLL will have a reduction of about 2 dB when the total number of elements in the array is doubled.<>