A New Method for the Design of Slot Antenna Arrays: Theory and Experiment

The present paper proposes and validates a new general design methodology that can be used to automatically find proper positions and orientations of waveguide-based radiating slots capable of realizing any given radiation beam profile. The new technique combines basic radiation theory and waveguide propagation theory in a novel analytical model that allows the prediction of the radiation characteristics of generic slots without the need to perform full-wave numerical solution. The analytical model is then used to implement a low-cost objective function within a global optimization scheme (here genetic algorithm.) The algorithm is then deployed to find optimum positions and orientations of clusters of radiating slots cut into the waveguide surface such that any desired beam pattern can be obtained. The method is verified using both full-wave numerical solution and experiment.