Synthesis of sparse planar antenna arrays with multiple constraints

Synthesis of symmetrical sparse planar antenna arrays is introduced in this paper. In order to reduce the peak sidelobe level of the radiation pattern, the element positions of the arrays are optimized by invasive weed optimization with complex boundary conditions. The proposed algorithm changes a two-dimensional optimization problem into a linear problem, which will reduce the complexity of the optimization procedure. The optimization method can constrain the size of the array aperture, the element number of the array, and the minimum spacing of the adjacent elements simultaneously. The simulation results show the robustness and effectiveness of the proposed method.