Performance Analysis of Power Weighted Linear Array Antennas Based on Blackman Function

Abstract

Nowadays, power weighted methods have been widely implemented for array antennas to optimize weighting coefficients using specific techniques. This paper deals with the performance analysis of power weighted linear array antennas based on Blackman function. Several attempts by varying number of array elements and inter element spacing are conducted for the linear array antennas working at the X-band frequency of 9.5 GHz. The use of Blackman function enhances the sidelobe level (SLL) of linear array antennas for variation of array elements number with constant inter element spacing. While for variation of inter element spacing with constant array elements number, Blackman function improves the width of mainlobe (WML) of linear array antennas. As comparison, Chebyshev and Kaiser functions are also employed for analyzing the performance of linear array antennas. The result shows that Blackman function has similar achievement to Chebyshev function for 8 radiator elements with predefined SLL of 68.8 dB and inter element spacing of λ/1.5 but with enhanced WML useful for broadside array antennas application. Furthermore, the use of Blackman function has also yielded better performance in SLL than Kaiser function with predefined SLL of 68.8 dB and β of 6.623.