Fuchs 2019

ICEAA-IEEE APWC 2019, Granada, Spain, 9 – 13 September 2019
On the use of Convex Optimization for Array Synthesis Problems

Benjamin Fuchs
Institute of Electronics and Telecommunications of Rennes, UMR CNRS 6164, University of Rennes 1, France
e-mail: benjamin.fuchs@univ-rennes1.fr
The synthesis of antenna arrays is a very long standing field in electromagnetism because of its many applications
(e.g. radar, radio astronomy, sonar, communications, direction-finding, seismology, medical diagnosis and
treatment). A host of methods have been proposed since the 40's to solve increasingly difficult array synthesis
problems. These techniques range from analytical methods (fast but limited to very specific problems) to global
optimization approaches (comprehensive but limited in performances due to their computational burden). Convex
optimization has been shown to be a good trade-off in efficiency/generality between analytical and global
optimization techniques in a number of relevant cases.
A variety of antenna synthesis problems can be cast as convex optimization ones. Such a convex formulation has
been proposed for the synthesis of focused beams [1], sparse arrays [2,3], polarization [4] and arrays with
excitation control [5] for instance. The objectives of these synthesis problems are respectively: the minimization
of the side lobe level, the minimization of the number of antennas, the optimization of the radiated wave
polarization and the regularization of the antenna excitations whereas the constraints of these synthesis problems
are typically a radiation pattern template.
A number of frequently encountered array synthesis problems are inherently non convex such as the synthesis of
shaped beams, phase-only excitations or reconfigurable arrays. These problems can be approximated as convex
optimization ones using the semidefinite relaxation technique in order to approximate the quadratic constraints
arising in many array synthesis problems [6,7]. The power radiated by an antenna array of steering vector a and
excitations x can be written:
ȁ݂ሺ‫ܠ‬ሻȁଶ ൌ ‫ ܠ‬ு ‫ ܠۯ‬ൌ ሺ‫ ܠܠۯ‬ு ሻ (1)
ு ு
where ‫ ۯ‬ൌ ‫ ܉܉‬is an Hermitian matrix, ‫ ܉‬standing for the conjugate transpose of ‫܉‬. By introducing the
variable ‫ ܆‬ൌ ‫ ܠܠ‬ு , the radiated power becomes:
ȁ݂ሺ‫ܠ‬ሻȁଶ ൌ ሺ‫܆ۯ‬ሻǡ ‫ Ͳ غ ܆‬and ሺ‫܆‬ሻ ൌ ͳ (2)
where the only non convex rank constraint can be dropped, hence the relaxation. The price to pay for turning
the initially difficult array synthesis problem of unknown ‫ ܠ‬into an easier to solve convex one of unknown ‫܆‬
is the increase in dimensions since the vector problem of dimension N is transformed into a matrix one of size
NxN. Finally, there are many readily available solvers to solve convex optimization problems. For instance,
CVX [8] can be used to find efficiently the optimal solution of such problems. Various representative examples
of array synthesis problems solved via convex optimizations will be shown.
1 H. Lebret and S. Boyd, “Antenna pattern synthesis via convex optimization,” IEEE Trans. Signal Processing,
vol. 45, no. 3, pp. 526–531, Mar. 1997.
2. B. Fuchs, “Synthesis of sparse arrays with focused or shaped beampattern via sequential convex optimizations,"
IEEE Trans. on Antennas and Propag., vol. 60,no. 7, pp. 3499-3503, July 2012.
3. G. Prisco and M. D’Urso, “Maximally sparse arrays via sequential convex optimizations,” IEEE Antennas
Wireless Propag. Lett., vol. 11, pp. 192–195, Feb. 2012
4. B. Fuchs and J.J. Fuchs, “Optimal polarization synthesis of arbitrary arrays with focused power pattern," IEEE
Trans. on Antennas and Propag., vol. 59, no. 12, pp. 4512-4519, Dec. 2011.
5. B. Fuchs and S. Rondineau, “Array Pattern Synthesis with Excitation Control via Norm Minimization," IEEE
Trans. on Antennas and Propag., vol. 64, no. 10, pp. 4228-4234, Oct. 2016.
6. P. J. Kajenski, “Phase only antenna pattern notching via a semidefinite programming relaxation,” IEEE Trans.
Antennas Propag., vol. 60, no. 5, pp. 2562–2565, May 2012.
7. B. Fuchs, “Application of Convex Relaxation to Array Synthesis Problems," IEEE Trans. on Antennas and
Propag., vol. 62, no. 2, pp. 634-640, Feb. 2014.
8. CVX Research, Inc. CVX : Matlab software for disciplined convex programming. Available from http
://cvxr.com/cvx.
978-1-7281-0563-5/19/$31.00 ©2019 IEEE 0382

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ICEAA-IEEE APWC 2019, Granada, Spain, 9 – 13 September 2019

On the use of Convex Optimization for Array Synthesis Problems

978-1-7281-0563-5/19/$31.00 ©2019 IEEE 0382

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