Low Mutual Coupling Sparse Array Design Using Ula Fitting

In this paper, a general sparse array (SA) design principle, called uniform linear array (ULA) fitting, is proposed. It uses concatenation of sub-ULAs to design SAs with feasible difference coarrays (DCAs). Motivation for the ULA fitting is that the nested array and coprime array are in fact the examples of concatenations of two sub-ULAs which provide good properties. The polynomial model is utilized to investigate the case when an SA is composed of multiple sub-ULAs. An example of SA designed via ULA fitting is presented, and it attests that the ULA fitting enables to design SAs with closedform expressions, low coupling leakage and long consecutive DCA.