A General Method of Constructing E(s2)-Optimal Supersaturated Designs

Summary There has been much recent interest in supersaturated designs and their application in factor screening experiments. Supersaturated designs have mainly been constructed by using the E(s2)-optimality criterion originally proposed by Booth and Cox in 1962. However, until now E(s2)-optimal designs have only been established with certainty for n experimental runs when the number of factors m is a multiple of n-1, and in adjacent cases where m=q( n-1) +r (|r|⩽2, q an integer). A method of constructing E(s2)-optimal designs is presented which allows a reasonably complete solution to be found for various numbers of runs n including n,=8 12, 16, 20, 24, 32, 40, 48, 64.