Design of Sparse Uniform Linear Array Beamformer using Modified FRM Structure for Varied Applications

Abstract

This paper presents a method to generate antenna patterns for a Uniform Linear Array (ULA) having narrow beamwidth and low sidelobe levels (SLL) using the recently proposed Modified FRM (ModFRM) architecture. This allows it to direct the beams to specific ground cells for communications while mitigating inter-cell interference. The sharpness of the beam pattern defines the spatial discriminating performance of a ULA beamformer, while the SLL dictates the interference and noise suppression capabilities. Typically, a conventional ULA beamforming will demand high computational complexity and a large number of sensors to satisfy these requirements. Hence to reduce the system cost, using the ModFRM technique a sparse array is developed. With this strategy, the total number of sensors is drastically reduced compared to conventional ULA beamformers. The designed beamformers can be used in applications with stringent requirements where cost and size are concerned.