Traditional periodic phased arrays offer little placement flexibility in that they require the antenna subarrays to be arranged in a rectangle consisting of rows and columns. In the aperiodic design, the arrangement of subarrays in a spiral pattern provides flexibility in the placement of the array by allowing multiple configurations, including irregular shapes and conformal designs, that enable ship designers to incorporate the arrays into any available surface. This approach, in conjunction with the use of higher-gain elements, allows for a significant reduction in the number of required elements, resulting in cost savings over conventional periodic arrays.

The use of commercially available, low-cost surface-mount technology on printed wiring boards offers further cost reductions versus traditional individual custom MMIC modules. The tested lattice consisted of six aperiodic spiral subarrays arranged in an aperiodic spiral array lattice grid. However, the lattice is scalable to any number of subarrays in order to achieve desired performance levels.