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Published in IET Microwaves, Antennas & Propagation

Received on 9th January 2007
Revised on 1st December 2007
doi: 10.1049/iet-map:20070004

ISSN 1751-8725

General synthesis method for linear phased

antenna array
N. Fadlallah1 M. Rammal1 H. Rammal2 P. Vaudon2
R. Ghayoula3 A. Gharsallah3
1
Lebanese University, Equipe Radiocom, IUT-Saida – Liban
2
Limoges University, Limoges, France
3
Electronics Laboratory, Physics Department, Sciences’ Faculty of Tunis, El-Manar 2092, Tunisia
E-mail: n_ fadlallah@yahoo.com

Abstract: An efficient phase-only control method is presented to synthesise directive lobe and multilobe patterns,
and create adaptive nulls in interference direction. The proposed method is based on iterative minimisation of a
function that incorporates constraints imposed in each direction with respect to excitation phases. To verify the
performances of the proposed technique, an eight-element array has been realised and tested for various types of
beam configurations.

1 Introduction present phase control methods for null steering and

There are various systems in which antenna pattern
reconfigurability is needed, particularly for applications of
an adaptive or switching beam antenna array. The desired
beam pattern can vary widely depending on the
applications, among which, there is a major class of pattern
synthesis methods, which aims at creating low side lobe
levels or multiple-patterns [1– 5]. Low side lobes do not
guarantee adequate reception in the presence of interfering
sources; those can be rejected by placing nulls in their
directions. It is usually desirable for switching to be
effected by modifying only the phases of the excitations,
since the implementation of variability is in general less
costly and/or more reliable for phase than for amplitude or
element position.
Generally the complex excitation is taken as a design
parameter. In this case, the synthesised parameters (phase
and amplitude) allow better control of the quality of beam
shape or side lobe level. Phase only control methods have
been extensively addressed in literature [6]. Some
applications propose a phase adjustment in order to take
into account coupling between elements [7] or to
ameliorate some characteristics of the radiated pattern like
side lobe reduction [8]. In [9, 10] are given the authors’
interference suppression for broadside arrays. A general
method based on the sequential quadratic programming
(SQP) algorithm is presented in [11, 12] and depends
essentially on the initial conditions.
In our work, a general approach based on phase
adjustment is proposed, in order to synthesise beam and/or
multibeam with steered zero in desired directions. The
basic idea of the present approach is to first apply the two
terms of the Taylor expansion to express a steering vector
in a particular direction and to construct a set of linear
equations that can be optimised with the minimax
criterion. The resulting linear system can be solved in the
minimax sense by a method similar to the Madsen
algorithm [13]. Specifications on the desired beam such as
the maximum and minimum side lobe level and the null
depth level are considered by introducing a set of
weighting factors in the function constructed for the
minimax algorithm. With this formulation, we are able to
steer beams and nulls to the desired direction, and at the
same time keep the average side lobe level minimum. The
advantage of this method is that one can achieve very
efficient performances of desired beams that are very easy
to create and control simply by the adjustment of weights
in angular positions.

338 IET Microw. Antennas Propag., 2008, Vol. 2, No. 4, pp. 338– 342
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Mutual coupling between elements can be taken into
account as indicated in [7 – 15]. Our study cases are limited
to scanning angles between – 608 and þ608. In this range,
the effect of coupling can be neglected and, thus, we do
not introduce coupling parameters in the formulation of
the problem.
2 Synthesis problem formulations
Mathematically, the purpose of numerical synthesis
techniques is to minimise the error between the required
radiated function and the computed one. The algorithm is
based on successive linear approximations to the non-linear
functions defining the problem [10]; the resulting linear
systems are solved in the minimax sense. The results
obtained are equiripple radiation patterns. The obtained
beams have equal relative errors (equal decibel ripples) in
the main lobe and equal side lobes in the side-lobe region.
The angular behaviour of the far field E of a linear spaced
array of 2N equi-amplitude radiators can be written as
1 X2N
EC (uj ) ¼ e j(K0 xn sin (uj )þfn ) (1)
2 N n¼1
with fn , the phase excitation and xn the position of the nth
element.
Desired patterns are usually defined in amplitude, and
optimal realisable patterns can only be defined with respect
to a certain error criterion. We will consider the minimax
norm, defined as the minimisation of the function



Err(uj ) ¼ Wj : Maxj
j Ec (uj ) j
Ed (uj )

j ¼ 1, . . . , M (2)
Under the constraints



Wi :
jEc (ui )j
1
¼ 0
where (ui) is the angular position of the main lobes



Wk :
jEc (uk )j
¼ 0
where (uk) is the angular position of the side lobes.
M is the number of the sampled angular direction, Ed is
the normalised amplitude of the required pattern field and
Ec is the amplitude of the calculated pattern field (power
synthesis). Error weighting (Wj) in each direction can be
adjusted to specify the desired levels of the array pattern.
This property may be used to synthesise the beam in all
possible directions and to cancel interfering sources
operating at the same frequency as that of the desired
source, providing a spatial separation, which is large enough.
In the case of power synthesis, the error to minimise is
equal to the difference between the modulus of the
IET Microw. Antennas Propag., 2008, Vol. 2, No. 4, pp. 338– 342
doi: 10.1049/iet-map:20070004
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computed function and the required one. It is proved that
the real synthesis is preferable in case of a directive beam
[14]. In the real-field synthesis case, the calculated field is
real, and the excitation distribution is symmetrical and
conjugated with the array centre. The computed field
becomes
1X N
Ec (uj ) ¼
N n¼1
cos(k0 x0n sin(uj ) þ wn ) (3)
with xn0 , the relative position of the nth element with the
array centre.
3 Simulation and measurment
examples
To verify the performance achievable using the proposed
approach, numerical results are obtained for several arrays.
An eight-element linear patch array (band 2.45 GHz,
substrate plexyGlass with 4 mm height), uniformly (l/2)
spaced has been realised (Fig. 1) and tested for three cases
of steered beams with null control, and three cases of
multibeams. We used a feeding circuit for each realised
case. A 1/8 microstrip divider is connected to the antennas
by eight pieces of 50 ohm cables with variable lengths
corresponding to synthesised phases. The measurement of
the coefficient of reflexion for each realised case has
confirmed our hypothesis before. The obtained S11
(Fig. 2) shows that the scanning in the range between
2608 and þ608 has a neglected effect because of the
mutual coupling.
Table 1 shows the simulation results of the proposed
approach when it is used with prescribed steering and null
Figure 1 Eight elements antennas array – E plane
Figure 2 Coefficient of reflexion at F ¼ 2.45 GHz
339
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Table 1 Excitations for different steering lobes and

interference nulling

Synthesised excitations (phases)

2108 (steering) 2408 (steering) 2508 (steering)
and 108 and 08 and 2108
(interfering) (interfering) (interfering)
f f f
2145 242 223
260 94 32
237 2173 158
28 269 279
8 69 79
37 173 2158 Figure 3 Steering lobe and interfering at (2108 and 108)
60 294 232
145 42 2223

design. Table 2 show the simulation results of the proposed

approach when it is used with prescribed multiple
steering lobes.

As the (Figs. 3 – 8) indicate, we can observe the

performance of our algorithm. These figures show good
agreement between the simulation and measurement results
in terms of accuracy, efficiency and reliability of the model.
We can see that a deep null (lower than 230 dB) is easily
available. It is interesting to note that the method allows
the control of the nulling level to the detriment of the
adjacent side lobe energy, which is pushed up. Also,
solutions with two or three lobes, which are acceptable, can
be reached.
Figure 4 Steering lobe and interfering at (2408 and 08)

Table 2 Excitations for different multiple steering lobes

Synthesised excitations (phases)

2508 and 2208 2308 and 308 2408, 208 and 508
f f f
95 5 95
2165 2175 245
275 180 281
50 360 126
250 0 2126
75 2180 81
165 175 45
295 25 295
Figure 5 Steering lobe and interfering at (2508 and 2108)

340 IET Microw. Antennas Propag., 2008, Vol. 2, No. 4, pp. 338– 342
& The Institution of Engineering and Technology 2008 doi: 10.1049/iet-map:20070004

Figure 6 Two steering lobes at (2508 and 2208)
Figure 7 Two steering lobes at (2308 and 308)
Figure 8 Three steering lobes at (2408, 208 and 508)
IET Microw. Antennas Propag., 2008, Vol. 2, No. 4, pp. 338– 342
doi: 10.1049/iet-map:20070004
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This algorithm not only applies to the examples presented
above, but also appears to be general for all cases of
synthesised desired characteristics of steered beams.
4 Conclusion
In conclusion, we have described an iterative technique,
which is able to compute the desired pattern for antenna
arrays by modifying only the phase excitations. The
proposed approach can be easily implemented without
complicated mathematical programming methods. The
technique has shown its ability to generate reasonable
results in all checked cases.
5 Acknowledgment
This work was supported by the Lebanese University research
project. The authors would like to acknowledge Prof. Vaudon
from the XLIM Team of Limoges University for providing
the facilities to fabricate and test the antenna arrays.
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IET Microw. Antennas Propag., 2008, Vol. 2, No. 4, pp. 338– 342
doi: 10.1049/iet-map:20070004