Inverse Design of Scalable Wideband Aperiodic Array Topologies With Realistic Element Patterns Accelerated via a Surrogate Directivity Model

Motivated by the critical challenges posed by modern wireless data trends and RFIC layouts, an aperiodic phased array topology that remains scalable to an arbitrary number of elements is proposed. Facilitated by an analytical surrogate directivity model of realistic embedded elements in an arbitrary planar array, such scalable aperiodic layouts are inversely designed for several element counts and representative cosine element patterns. It is seen that the proposed topology can operate over a wider bandwidth and field of view (FOV) than counterpart periodic arrays, yet with similar maximum gains across more than an octave of operation. Moreover, the use of the surrogate directivity model in the inverse design of these arrays bears out, for the first time, the importance of considering an array's embedded element pattern during the design process, not just after. It is shown that this process, which represents a significant break from the traditional optimization approaches, can yield array designs with superior performance.