Lesson 6 — Antenna Patterns and Beamforming

How an antenna's pattern decides what the radar sees and from where — main lobe, side lobes, and the back lobe — plus the beamforming and electronically scanned arrays that steer a beam in microseconds, and why side lobes are the EW back door.

Reading

Antenna Patterns and Beamforming

Pattern anatomy, HPBW and SLL, the gain/aperture/beamwidth rules, beam steering, and ESA/AESA.

Flashcards

Review deck

Key terms and relations from the lesson, in a self-test deck.

Pre-flight

Pre-flight quiz

Five questions to work before class — anyone can be called to the board.

Slides

Lesson slides

The deck we work through in class, as a PDF you can annotate.

Demo

Phased Array Simulator

Steer a linear or planar array, read HPBW and SLL, and watch grating lobes appear when spacing breaks the λ/(1+|sin θ₀|) limit.