On the design of sparse arrays using difference sets

We address the problem of sparse planar array design. Based on the theory of minimum redundancy arrays, we recently proposed an iterative algorithm that is capable to design highly thinned arrays with a low side-lobe level while retaining the half-power-beam-width of uniform arrays. In this paper, we analyze the effect of kernel bandwidth and compare the approach to a recent paper by Kopilovich which is based on the family of Hadamard difference sets. The results show that the proposed method achieves similar performance with a substantially lower amount of array elements. Side-Lobe-Levels are comparable to the ones from uniform arrays and only slightly higher than for Hadamard-based arrays.