SLL Suppression Performance of the Blackman Linear Array Antenna

The development of power-weighted method on the array antenna is dominated by using window function as weighting coefficient. One of the window functions that has been rarely implemented on the power-weighted method but has a very promising chance of sidelobe level (SLL) suppression capabilities is Blackman function. The average of SLL suppression on a linear array antenna using a popular weighting such as Chebyshev is 25 dB, whereas the Blackman function is theoretically capable of delivering an SLL suppression performance of more than 25 dB. This paper presents the modelling and application of power-weighted method with Blackman function as weighting coefficient on the design of a linear array antenna, namely Blackman linear array (BLA). It is demonstrated that on the 1 × 8 BLA design, SLL suppression can deliver maximum output to eliminate sidelobes with the suppression level reaching 39.14 dB to 42.70 dB. While front to back ratio (FTBR) parameter, the proposed 1 × 8 BLA has the value of 13.44 dB. In addition, the comparison of radiation patterns produced by the BLA and with the uniform linear array (ULA) is also reported.