Array beam scanning by variation of elements amplitude-only excitations

Beam scanning in phased arrays is achieved by varying the phases of elements excitations or by frequency scanning. However, both techniques suffer from some disadvantages. It is shown here that beam scanning is also feasible by varying the magnitudes of the elements excitations thus alleviating the need for phase and/or frequency variation. Theoretical analysis and computer simulations are presented to investigate the performance of the proposed amplitude scanning technique. The performance is compared with that of the frequency scanning technique.