Phase Error Correction of Large Phased Array Antennas using Genetic Algorithm

Each channel of the phased array antenna intrinsically has the phase errors. This is because of the position and orientation error of antenna elements due to assembling tolerance or mechanical distortion, and the electric length error of each RF channel. These errors can decrease the antenna performance, for instance the gain reduction, sidelobe level enhancement, and inaccurate beam direction. In order to improve the performance of the antenna in the presence of phase errors, a phase correction method using Genetic Algorithm (GA) is proposed. By using the proposed method, the antenna overall radiation pattern is recovered close to ideal radiation pattern without error. By applying the simulation data to a large array of 32 40 elements at the frequency of S-band the effectiveness of the proposed method is verified.