A pole‐zero modeling approach to linear array synthesis: 1. The unconstrained solution

Prony's method, a procedure for estimating the parameters of a sum of exponentials, is applied here to linear array pattern synthesis. Unlike most approaches to this problem, Prony's method provides source locations as well as source strengths, so that the synthesized distributions generally involve nonuniformly spaced sources. In this paper, the procedure is developed, its numerical characteristics are discussed, and its application is illustrated for several different radiation patterns. Because the unconstrained procedure discussed here can lead to a requirement for directive sources, paper 2 will treat a version of Prony's method constrained to produce isotropic sources.