A Lossless Beam-Forming Network for Linear Arrays Based on Overlapped Sub-Arrays

A novel lossless beam-forming network (BFN) architecture for limited field of view and multi-beam linear arrays is introduced. The BFN, which is based on the overlapped sub-array technique, presents a number of advantages if compared to previous architectures. The most attractive feature consists in a substantial reduction of the number of control elements and associated active devices (i.e., amplifiers, variable phase shifters, etc.). This advantage is achieved adopting a lossless topology with reduced implementation complexity together with a rigorous and analytical design methodology which allows to fully define the BFN at architectural level and to optimize the sub-array radiation pattern in a least mean square error sense.