Overcoming Limitations of Agile Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) Using a Radiating Surface Antenna called Agile Radiating Matrix Antenna (ARMA)

Electronically Agile beam Antennas are able to generate moving radiation patterns to perform Beam Forming and Beam Steering. Today, the design of such antennas is performed by the well-known Array Technique called AESA: Agile Electronically Scanned Array which presents some limitations. To overcome these limitations, a new approach is proposed in this paper called “ARMA” (Agile Radiating Matrix Antenna). This approach defines Agile Beam Radiating Surfaces that are sampled using rectangular functions instead of Dirac combs for the arrays. The intrinsic advantages are demonstrated and the ARMA-AESA comparison shows a larger accuracy of ARMA approach, which overcomes the limitations inherent in the array technique.