Abstract
<jats:p>A method for reducing the peak sidelobe level of regular MIMO antenna arrays is proposed and justified. The method is based on introducing random displacements of the actual transmitting and receiving array elements along two orthogonal Cartesian coordinates within the array plane. Such random perturbations destroy the diffraction maxima in the array factor, which determine the peak sidelobe level. It is shown that even small random displacements with a uniform probability distribution within the range of one operating wavelength can reduce the peak sidelobe level by more than 3 dB, while the main beamwidth and the average sidelobe level remain practically unchanged. It is also noted that when the displacement range exceeds approximately two operating wavelengths, the random component dominates the array configuration, which limits the achievable reduction in the peak sidelobe level.</jats:p>