The research of grating lobe suppression of plat end-fire antenna array

We design antenna array using plat end-fire antenna element, but the grating lobe is produced when the element spacing is increased to more than 0.5 wavelength. This paper outlines the mechanism of plat end-fire antenna and proposes a new method to suppress grating lobes. Considering the issue of grating lobe suppression, this paper analyses the feasibility of ambiguity solving with virtual elements using the virtual array transformation algorithm and the virtual array algorithm based on least squares estimator. We use the virtual array algorithm to estimate the received data of virtual elements based on the known received data of actual end-fire antenna elements, the virtual array reduce the element spacing which can be set as 0.5 wavelength without change the actual aperture of antenna array, thus the grating lobes can be suppressed. Simulation results verify the feasibility of the new method.