Are Cantor arrays effective for designing thinned arrays?

Cantor distributions of identical radiating apertures allow the design of low side-lobe arrays (see Puente-Baliarda and Pons, Antennas Propagat 44 (1996) 730-739). However we show here that Cantor arrays that achieve both a desired beamwidth in the broadside direction and a given peak side-lobe le vel for any main beam direction (scanning application) present a Minimum number of radiating elements that is generally higher than that of thinned arrays designed by means of a genetic algorithm. (C) 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.