The design of antenna arrays with tapered sidelobe heights

Arrays for many radar and sonar applications have customarily been designed for equal sidelobe levels. This is, perhaps, as much due to the convenience of the analytical Dolph-Chebyshev technique as to any specific requirement. Using a simple adaptation of a previously reported numerical technique for symmetrical arrays, designs can be obtained whose directional response has a specified taper on the envelope containing the sidelobes. The method is applicable to both sum and difference patterns for both line and planar arrays. However, there seems to be little to be gained by this procedure except in the case when the outer sideiobes are to be more severely controlled.