{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,2,10]],"date-time":"2026-02-10T18:30:22Z","timestamp":1770748222378,"version":"3.49.0"},"reference-count":36,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"3","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2020,1,28]],"date-time":"2020-01-28T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1580169600000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Sensors"],"abstract":"<jats:p>This paper introduces a novel antenna array synthesis for radar systems based on the concept of a virtual antenna array (VAA) and the method of moments\/genetic algorithm (MoM\/GA) synthesis method. The VAA concept is applied to both scanning and fixed radiation pattern arrays. The proposed VAA is introduced to simultaneously support the medium-range radar (MRR) and the long-range radar (LRR) with beam width \u00b17\u00b0 for LRR and \u00b137\u00b0 for MRR. The proposed VAA is distinguished by its minimum number of antenna elements, simple feeding network, high efficiency, and gain, but all of these are at the expense of a large aperture antenna size compared to the planar antenna array (PAA). The VAA has the ability to have the feeding network and the radiating elements on the same layer, as compared to the multilayer PAA. The newly proposed concept is analyzed and verified analytically and experimentally. Two orthogonal (16 elements) VAAs are designed to operate in the frequency range from 23.55 to 24.7 GHz and to support a flat-shoulder shape (FSS) radiation pattern for LRR\/MRR. The antenna was fabricated and tested experimentally, and good agreements between the simulated and measured results were noticed. The proposed VAA is introduced to solve the problems of large size, low isolations, low efficiency, feeding network, low resolution, and small coverage range for the antenna arrays of automotive radars. The proposed antenna array is introduced for automotive radar applications at 24 GHz.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/s20030713","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2020,1,28]],"date-time":"2020-01-28T09:37:09Z","timestamp":1580204229000},"page":"713","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":12,"title":["MOM\/GA-Based Virtual Array for Radar Systems"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"20","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-2756-4765","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Kamel","family":"Sultan","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Electronics Research Institute, El-Nozha Elgededa, Cairo 12622, Egypt"},{"name":"Electronic and Communication Department, Faculty of Engineering, Ain shams University, Cairo 12622, Egypt"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Haythem","family":"Abdullah","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Electronics Research Institute, El-Nozha Elgededa, Cairo 12622, Egypt"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-4789-5908","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Esmat","family":"Abdallah","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Electronics Research Institute, El-Nozha Elgededa, Cairo 12622, Egypt"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Hadia","family":"El-Hennawy","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Electronic and Communication Department, Faculty of Engineering, Ain shams University, Cairo 12622, Egypt"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2020,1,28]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Menzel, W. (2016). Antennas in automobile radar. Handbook of Antenna Technologies, Springer.","DOI":"10.1007\/978-981-4560-44-3_96"},{"key":"ref_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"3769","DOI":"10.1109\/TAP.2018.2823911","article-title":"Optimization and implementation of SIW slot array for both medium-and long-range 77 GHz automotive radar application","volume":"66","author":"Yu","year":"2018","journal-title":"IEEE Trans. Antennas Propag."},{"key":"ref_3","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"7207","DOI":"10.1109\/TAP.2017.2761549","article-title":"An array antenna for both long-and medium-range 77 GHz automotive radar applications","volume":"65","author":"Xu","year":"2017","journal-title":"IEEE Trans. Antennas Propag."},{"key":"ref_4","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"2823","DOI":"10.1109\/TMTT.2014.2354134","article-title":"A 77\u201381-GHz 16-element phased-array receiver with +50 beam scanning for advanced automotive radars","volume":"62","author":"Ku","year":"2014","journal-title":"IEEE Trans. Microw. Theory Tech."},{"key":"ref_5","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Rabinovich, V., and Alexandrov, N. (2013). Antenna Arrays and Automotive Applications, Springer Science Business Media.","DOI":"10.1007\/978-1-4614-1074-4"},{"key":"ref_6","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Sultan, K.S., Abdullah, H.H., Abdallah, E.A., Basha, M.A., and El-Hennawy, H.H. (2018, January 8\u201313). Dielectric resonator antenna with AMC for long range automotive radar applications at 77 GHz. Proceedings of the 2018 IEEE International Symposium on Antennas and Propagation & USNC\/URSI National Radio Science Meeting, Boston, MA, USA.","DOI":"10.1109\/APUSNCURSINRSM.2018.8608494"},{"key":"ref_7","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"3485","DOI":"10.1109\/TAP.2012.2194646","article-title":"A millimeter-wave gain enhanced multi-beam antenna based on a coplanar cylindrical dielectric lens","volume":"60","author":"Zhang","year":"2012","journal-title":"IEEE Trans. Antennas Propag."},{"key":"ref_8","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"2746","DOI":"10.1109\/JSSC.2010.2075250","article-title":"A fully-integrated 77 GHz FMCW radar transceiver in 65-nm CMOS technology","volume":"45","author":"Honma","year":"2010","journal-title":"IEEE J. Solid State Circuits"},{"key":"ref_9","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"5215","DOI":"10.1109\/TAP.2015.2478143","article-title":"Bandwidth enhanced grid array antenna for UWB automotive radar sensors","volume":"63","author":"Alsath","year":"2015","journal-title":"IEEE Trans. Antennas Propag."},{"key":"ref_10","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"892","DOI":"10.1109\/TAP.2018.2880099","article-title":"24 GHz horizontally polarized automotive antenna arrays with wide fan beam and high gain","volume":"67","author":"Yu","year":"2019","journal-title":"IEEE Trans. Antennas Propag."},{"key":"ref_11","unstructured":"Rohling, H. (2010, January 16\u201318). Milestones in radar and the success story of automotive radar systems. Proceedings of the 11th International Radar Symposium, Vilnius, Lithuania."},{"key":"ref_12","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Meinel, H.H. (2014, January 6\u201311). Evolving automotive radar\u2014From the very beginnings into the future. Proceedings of the 8th European Conference Antennas and Propagation, The Hague, The Netherlands.","DOI":"10.1109\/EuCAP.2014.6902486"},{"key":"ref_13","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"2041","DOI":"10.1109\/TAP.2017.2669726","article-title":"Lens antenna for wide angle beam scanning at 79 GHz for automotive short range radar applications","volume":"65","author":"Saleem","year":"2017","journal-title":"IEEE Trans. Antenna Propag."},{"key":"ref_14","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Colome, G.C.V., Dassano, G., and Orefice, M. (2005, January 12\u201314). Optimization of a lens-patch antenna for radar sensor applications. Proceedings of the 18th International Conference on Applied Electromagnetics and Communications, Dubrovnik, Croatia.","DOI":"10.1109\/ICECOM.2005.205034"},{"key":"ref_15","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Wenig, P., Weigel, R., and Schneider, M. (2008, January 26\u201327). Dielectric lens antenna for digital beamforming and superresolution DOA estimation in 77 GHz automotive radars. Proceedings of the International ITG Workshop on Smart Antennas, Vienna, Austria.","DOI":"10.1109\/WSA.2008.4475557"},{"key":"ref_16","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1085","DOI":"10.1109\/LAWP.2013.2280461","article-title":"Improvement in 77-GHz radar cross section of road work jacket and side screen by use of planar flexible retrodirective reflectors","volume":"12","author":"Hallbjorner","year":"2013","journal-title":"IEEE Antennas Wirel. Propag. Lett."},{"key":"ref_17","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1580","DOI":"10.1109\/LAWP.2018.2853804","article-title":"Wideband compact comb-line antenna array for 79 GHz automotive radar applications","volume":"17","author":"Mosalanejad","year":"2018","journal-title":"IEEE Antennas Wirel. Propag. Lett."},{"key":"ref_18","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"4678","DOI":"10.1109\/TAP.2018.2842300","article-title":"A cavity-backed endfire dipole antenna array using substrate-integrated suspended line technology for 24 GHz band applications","volume":"66","author":"He","year":"2018","journal-title":"IEEE Trans. Antennas Propag."},{"key":"ref_19","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"174","DOI":"10.1109\/TAP.1981.1142543","article-title":"Microstrip series array","volume":"29","author":"Metzler","year":"1981","journal-title":"IEEE Trans. Antennas Propag."},{"key":"ref_20","first-page":"7","article-title":"Millimeter-wave microstrip array antenna with high efficiency for automotive radar systems","volume":"37","author":"Iizuka","year":"2002","journal-title":"R D Rev. Toyota Crdl"},{"key":"ref_21","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Alibakhshikenari, M., Virdee, B.S., See, C.H., Abd-Alhameed, R.A., Falcone, F., and Limiti, E. (2019). High-isolation leaky-wave array antenna based on CRLH-metamaterial implemented on SIW with +\/- 30(o) frequency beam-scanning capability at millimetre-waves. Electronics, 8.","DOI":"10.3390\/electronics8060642"},{"key":"ref_22","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1067","DOI":"10.1029\/2019RS006871","article-title":"Surface wave reduction in antenna arrays using metasurface inclusion for MIMO and SAR systems","volume":"54","author":"Alibakhshikenari","year":"2019","journal-title":"Radio Sci."},{"key":"ref_23","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1456","DOI":"10.1109\/TAP.2018.2794410","article-title":"Reducing the radar cross section of microstrip arrays using AMC structures for the vehicle integration of automotive radars","volume":"66","author":"Vasanelli","year":"2018","journal-title":"IEEE Trans. Antennas Propag."},{"key":"ref_24","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Alibakhshikenari, M., and Virdee, B.S. (2019). Study on isolation and radiation behaviours of a 34\u00d734 array-antennas based on SIW and metasurface properties for applications in terahertz band over 125\u2013300 GHz. Optik, 163222.","DOI":"10.1016\/j.ijleo.2019.163222"},{"key":"ref_25","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"587276","DOI":"10.1155\/2012\/587276","article-title":"Virtual antenna array analysis for MIMO synthetic aperture radars","volume":"2012","author":"Wang","year":"2012","journal-title":"Int. J. Antennas Propag."},{"key":"ref_26","unstructured":"Qu, Y., Liao, G.S., Zhu, S.Q., Liu, X.Y., and Jiao, H. (2008, January 19\u201321). Performance comparisons of MIMO and phased-array radar. Proceedings of the 17th International Conference on Microwaves, Radar and Wireless Communications, Wroclaw, Poland."},{"key":"ref_27","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Li, J., and Stoica, P. (2009). MIMO Radar Signal Processing, Wiley.","DOI":"10.1002\/9780470391488"},{"key":"ref_28","unstructured":"Vaidyanathan, P.P. (2009). Signal Processing Algorithms for MIMO Radar. [Ph.D. Thesis, California Institute of Technology]."},{"key":"ref_29","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1232","DOI":"10.1109\/LAWP.2011.2174189","article-title":"Optimum design of linear antenna arrays using a hybrid MoM\/GA algorithm","volume":"10","author":"Hussein","year":"2011","journal-title":"IEEE Antennas Wirel. Propag. Lett."},{"key":"ref_30","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"4073","DOI":"10.1109\/TAP.2013.2260515","article-title":"Range-angle dependent transmit beampattern synthesis for linear frequency diverse arrays","volume":"61","author":"Wang","year":"2013","journal-title":"IEEE Trans. Antennas Propag."},{"key":"ref_31","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"527","DOI":"10.1016\/0165-2125(88)90011-X","article-title":"A limited survey of various conjugate gradient methods for solving complex matrix equations arising in electromagnetic wave interactions","volume":"10","author":"Sarkar","year":"1988","journal-title":"Wave Motion"},{"key":"ref_32","unstructured":"Pozar, D.M. (2012). Microwave Engineering, John Wiley & Sons, Inc."},{"key":"ref_33","unstructured":"Hamieh, I. (2012). A 77 GHz reconfigurable micromachined microstrip antenna array. [Ph.D. Thesis, Electronic Theses and Dissertations, University of Windsor]."},{"key":"ref_34","unstructured":"Shin, D.H., Kim, K.B., Kim, J.G., and Park, S.O. (2013, January 23\u201325). Design of low side lobe level milimeter-wave microstrip array antenna for automotive radar. Proceedings of the International Symposium on Antennas and Propagation, Nanjing, China."},{"key":"ref_35","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"2833","DOI":"10.1109\/TAP.2015.2419691","article-title":"77-GHz dual-layer transmit-array for automotive radar applications","volume":"63","author":"Yeap","year":"2015","journal-title":"IEEE Trans. Antennas Propag."},{"key":"ref_36","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Yasini, S., and Aghdam, K.M. (2016, January 20\u201322). Design and simulation of a comb-line fed microstrip antenna array with low side lobe level at 77GHz for automotive collision avoidance radar. Proceedings of the 2016 Fourth International Conference on Millimeter-Wave and Terahertz Technologies, Tehran, Iran.","DOI":"10.1109\/MMWaTT.2016.7869923"}],"container-title":["Sensors"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/1424-8220\/20\/3\/713\/pdf","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,13]],"date-time":"2025-10-13T13:30:35Z","timestamp":1760362235000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/1424-8220\/20\/3\/713"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2020,1,28]]},"references-count":36,"journal-issue":{"issue":"3","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2020,2]]}},"alternative-id":["s20030713"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/s20030713","relation":{},"ISSN":["1424-8220"],"issn-type":[{"value":"1424-8220","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2020,1,28]]}}}