Direct synthesis for sequential networks with an arbitrary number of outputs

A general approach for the synthesis of the optimal sequential network for use in sequentially rotated antenna (SRA) arrays with an arbitrary number of elements is presented. The performance of this class of antennas are strictly bound to the capacity of the feeding network to produce the nominal power distribution and phase progression. Despite the very high interest in the scientific community on SRA architectures, very few papers have addressed the problem of synthesizing a generic network, with an arbitrary number of outputs. In this paper we propose a novel approach based on closed formulas which solves the synthesis problem exactly, for a given frequency. The proposed approach is then validated with a set of simulations and with the fabrication and measurement of a prototype. Both the simulations and the experimental validation confirms the effectiveness of the proposed method.