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Multi-focal transmit-array designs to boost the scanning performance of small phased arrays

Vaquero, A. F. ; Matos, S.A. ; Baena, M. ; Felício, J. M. ; Pino , M. R. ; Fernandes, C. A.

Multi-focal transmit-array designs to boost the scanning performance of small phased arrays, Proc 43rd Antenna Workshop Antenna Technologies, Noordwijk., Netherlands, Vol. , pp. - , October, 2025.

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Abstract
This work proposes a hybrid Phased array (PA) – transmit-array (TA) architecture that attains agile, fully electronic beam steering while preserving the high directivity of low-profile TA terminals. The core contribution is a two-stage synthesis, firstly, adapting the multi-focal TA design to account for the PA illumination, and second, proposing a regularized inversion that computes complex PA excitations which best reproduce the target quasi-Gaussian aperture illumination used in the TA design. The combined design reduces scanning aberrations and improves pointing control compared to unoptimized feeding, even when using a compact 10 × 10 PA feeder. Numerical experiments validate the approach by comparing PA far-field, and the hybrid PA-TA architecture, resulting in promising radiation patterns across a wide scanning range.