Beamforming for a Highly Flexible Phased Array Conformed on a Shape-Variable Aperture

Flexible phased arrays have gained widespread attention in different areas. However, in practical applications, the arrays may conform on a shape-variable aperture, leading to real-time deformations. To maintain radiation performance, it is essential to achieve beamforming of the flexible phased array under arbitrary deformations. In this work, a phase-only update strategy is proposed to enable beam scanning for a two-dimensional flexible phased array under high deformations. Furthermore, a least squares-based strategy for simultaneous phase and amplitude updates is introduced to achieve simultaneous multi-beam forming for the flexible array under high deformations in real time. Finally, a 10 x 10 flexible array operating in the S-band is numerically simulated under typical bending deformations, validating the accuracy and effectiveness of the proposed approaches.