Systematic Approach to Inhomogeneous Linear Arrays

The paper investigates a new approach to analysis and design of inhomogeneous linear antenna arrays. The approach relies on omnidirectional antennas, which exhibit linear phase variation of the radiation pattern in the far-field. By appropriately combining different phase variations with a spacing between antennas, one can obtain a performance not achievable with standard linear arrays. Most notably, the approach allows to decrease size of the aperture required for a given beamwidth. The radiation pattern can be easily calculated by a simple equation (if coupling is neglected).