Tolerance analysis of reconfigurable monopulse linear antenna arrays through interval arithmetic

The tolerance of reconfigurable monopulse linear arrays on the uncertainties of the excitation amplitudes is analyzed with a method based on the rules of the interval arithmetic (IA) and analytic bounds for the sum and the difference power patterns are computed. Thanks to the reliability and the computational efficiency of such an IA-based formulation in deriving conservative and narrow pattern bounds, which include all possible pattern deviations, an innovative strategy is proposed for the worst-case performance analysis when dealing with tolerances on different parts of the beam forming network. Representative numerical examples both validate the formulation at hand and prove the effectiveness of the arising worst-case tool.