Null steering of linear antenna arrays by phase perturbations using modified tabu search algorithm

A simple and flexible technique for the pattern synthesis of linear antenna arrays with prescribed nulls, based on the tabu search algorithm, is presented. Forming nulls in the pattern is achieved by controlling only the phase of each array element. The trade-off of the relative importance between the null depth and the perturbed pattern is also obtained by introducing the weighting factors in the cost function constructed for the tabu search algorithm. Several examples of Chebyshev pattern with the imposed single, multiple, and broad nulls are given to show the versatility of the presented method.