Optimization of three dimensional retrodirective arrays

Retrodirective antenna systems have presented a very attractive feature of transmitting their RF energy back in the directions of their received signals. Much of the research efforts have so far been focused on electronic parts of the systems rather than on antenna array configurations they used. In this paper, we present a numerical scheme that can optimize the retrodirective array performance by finding optimum positioning of the array elements. In it, the surfaces which the array elements are to be placed on are discretized into a numerical grid of meshes. An objective function is then constructed by taking into account of array directivity (D), side lobe level (SLL) and half power beam width (HPBW). The optimum positioning of array elements are then found by searching for minimum objective function values when elements are placed over different grid points. The simulation results are presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of the method.