Fast Sidelobe Calculation and Suppression in Arbitrary Two-Dimensional Phased Arrays

Sidelobe calculation is a common procedure in phased array synthesis. However, the traditional sidelobe calculation method through pattern simulation and peak searching costs a large amount of time. In this letter, we derive a formula for fast sidelobe level calculation in arbitrary 2-D phased arrays. The formula describes the relationship between sidelobe (change throughout the article) level and the element feeding excitations. The result of numerical experiments shows that the proposed method is as accurate as the search method. When applying our formula in a genetic algorithm for sidelobe suppression, the proposed method consumes 0.1% of the computing time compared with the search method in a nonuniformly distributed array of 50 elements.