Sidelobe Control of Two-Way Patterns for Circular Planar Arrays

Radar designs frequently specify a two-way array pattern sidelobe level. The two-way pattern is the product of the transmit and receive array patterns. Usually, the transmit and receive array patterns are independently synthesized. This paper explains the potential benefits of jointly synthesizing the low sidelobe tapers of the transmit and receive patterns to improve the two-way pattern sidelobes. In particular, results for a circular ring array with a Taylor taper on receive and a uniform/Taylor taper on transmit are presented. Results presented show up to a 3 dB lower sidelobe level than is obtained using the traditional approach.