%T Boresight Slope Optimization of Sub-arrayed Linear Arrays through the Contiguous Partition Method %L elediasc12455 %D 2011 %X The optimization of the normalized boresight slope of the difference pattern in sub-arrayed linear monopulse antennas is presented. The knowledge of the independently optimum difference excitations, which provide the maximum normalized boresight slope, is exploited with an efficient excitation matching technique based on the contiguous partition method. A set of numerical experiments are provided to assess the effectiveness of the proposed method in reaching the best achievable performances even though with a small number of sub-arrays. 2008 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. Permission from IEEE must be obtained for all other users, including reprinting/ republishing this material for advertising or promotional purposes, creating new collective works for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or reuse of any copyrighted components of this work in other works. %I University of Trento %A Luca Manica %A Paolo Rocca %A Matteo Pastorino %A Andrea Massa %K Monopulse array antennas, Sum and difference patterns, Boresight slope