New approach to constructing two-dimensional aperture synthesis systems

The problem of constructing aperture synthesis (AS) systems which cover a given rectangular domain of spatial frequencies with a minimum of receiving elements is considered. A method for obtaining two-dimensional AS systems by multiplying linear minimum redundancy AS systems is proposed. On the basis of difference sets, AS systems for large domains are suggested. The redundancy of such systems reaches 32-33 percent, whereas that of T systems for square domains is 50 percent and for rectangular domains not less than 41 percent. The general estimates of the minimum-redundancy two-dimensional AS systems indicate that the construction suggested in this work can be ragarded as a step towards optimal AS systems.