Aperture Illuminations for Radar Angle-of-Arrival Measurements

For the analysis of radars of the search type, the antenna parameters of overall power gain and beamwidth are usually adequate to describe the antenna portion of the radar. If the radar is used for highly accurate angle-of-arrival measurements, it is desirable to introduce another antenna parameter for a system analysis. This additional parameter should relate the antenna error voltage to the angle-of-arrival or error angle. However, this slope parameter should be a property of the antenna and independent of the impedance and power level. A method of evaluating this parameter for a variety of antenna aperture illuminations will be described.