Hierarchical Array Design Strategy Composed of Irregular and Overlapped Subarrays in Large-Scale Planar Array

Effective cost reduction is the primary task of the commercialization of phased array antenna technology. In this communication, a novel array structure composed of irregular and overlapped subarrays is proposed. The advantages of two kinds of subarrays are integrated to achieve the performance requirements while reducing the cost. The basic idea is departing the array into a multilayer hierarchical structure. The first layer is subtly designed by irregular subarray tiles. In this case, the number of active devices can be effectively reduced, thereby reducing the cost. The second layer is an overlapped subarray structure which is able to ensure scanning performance. Both limited field of view and wideband wide-angle scanning applications are discussed to show the compatibility of the proposed structure. The effectiveness is verified by various numerical results.