Particle swarm optimization of a modified Bernstein polynomial for conformal array excitation synthesis

Bernstein polynomials are well known in the computer graphics community as the basis functions of Bezier curves. Like popular amplitude weighting functions, such as Taylor weights, Bernstein polynomials are nonnegative and decay smoothly from a single maximum. A modified Bernstein polynomial is introduced, defined with just four parameters for ease and speed of optimization. A particle swarm optimizer sets these four parameters to realize low array sidelobe amplitude distributions for a conformal array at various scan angles. This yields a novel method of generating realistic aperture weights, using the relatively new technique of particle swarm optimization.