Synthesis of Sparse Planar Arrays for Passive Imaging Systems Based on Switch Submatrix

In order to reduce the cost of imaging systems, the use of a switch matrix instead of the standard multichannel schema is considered to be a good solution. However, the design of a switch matrix for imaging applications is a complex task, particularly for a 2-D array because it depends mainly on the array topology, the number of channels, and the required performance. In this letter, a switch submatrix approach for a passive imaging system is presented and discussed. The goal is to reduce the complexity and the cost of the system architecture while maintaining its high performance. An optimization method that is able to yield optimal sparse arrays with a very low redundancy and an optimized switching process is then proposed. Numerical results confirm the efficiency of the proposed method. A good tradeoff between cost, performance, and system complexity is also reported.