Semi-coprime array with staggered beam-steering of sub-arrays

A split-aperture array (SAA) is an array of sensors or antenna elements in which the array is split into two or more sub-arrays (SAs). Recently proposed SAAs, namely coprime and semi-coprime arrays, offer to attain a small half-power beamwidth (HPBW) with a small number of elements, compared to most conventional unified-aperture arrays, at the cost of reduced peak-to-side-lobe ratio (PSLR). To reduce HPBW and increase PSLR, non-uniform inter-element spacing and excitation amplitudes have proven helpful. However, all the existing arrays and beam-formers suffer increased HPBW, degraded PSLR or both when the main beam is steered away from the broadside. In this paper, we propose staggered beam-steering of SAs, a novel technique for decreasing HPBW. In this technique, we steer the main beams of the SAs of a semi-coprime array to angles slightly different from the desired steering angle. In conjunction with staggered beam-steering of SAs, we have utilized Chebyshev weights to suppress the side lobes. The results show that the beam-widening effect of Chebyshev weights can be mitigated considerably by staggered beam-steering of the SAs. Ultimately, the unified beam-pattern of the whole array offers HPBW and PSLR better than the existing SAAs, uniform and non-uniform linear arrays, especially when the desired steering angle is away from the broadside direction.