Synthesis of wide beam array patterns using random phase weights

Synthesis of wide beam array antennas is investigated using phase-only excitations for uniform amplitude array. In this approach random phase distribution is proposed. Symmetrical and asymmetrical distributions of the random phase are considered. The obtained patterns are assessed by comparing beam width and maximum level of the radiated field with those obtainable from the conventional broadside array. The obtained results showed many fold increase in the -10 dB beam width, and a reduction of up to 8.5 dB in the maximum level of the pattern as compared to the case of broadside array. The proposed technique offers a simple method to synthesize arrays of wide beam, where only (N/2-1), and (N-1)/2 for even, and odd number of elements N respectively are required for an N-element array.