## 1 Introduction
DS is used to establish pattern synthesis rules, while DFT is employed to find the nonuniform excitations of a planar antenna array. The proposed method extracts excitations using cyclic shifts from a suitable DS sequence to achieve antenna array thinning with a reduced PSLL. In this paper, two beamforming approaches for sectorized beam scanning of linear antenna arrays based on the element position perturbation (EPP) technique denoted as EPP-BSA and SLL/EPP-BSA are introduced. In both techniques, the elements' excitations are kept constant while the positions of the elements are perturbed in the azimuth plane according to a predefined perturbation pattern. In this work, the cosine wave pattern is utilized for this purpose. The proposed EPP-BSA provides wider scanning ranges than the proposed SLL/EPP-BSA but with much higher SLLs at the endpoints of the scanning range. In this regard, the proposed SLL/EPP-BSA may be useful in interference-sensitive applications that require small scanning sectors. The proposed techniques are based on modifying the EPP pattern rather than using phase shifters while maintaining the elements excitations. This simplifies the production process and lowers the cost of the feeding network. Furthermore, the proposed technique eliminates interference and coupling between the main beam and the back lobe at any scanning angle by maintaining a 180 spacing angle between them. Furthermore, a proposed PAA thinning approach is proposed to realize the proposed EPP-BSA approach. It allows for precise array thinning to select the desired active \"ON\" antenna elements and turn off the other elements to configure the designed EPP pattern to achieve a specific scan angle with the desired radiation properties. The results are realized using the computer simulation technology (CST) microwave studio software package, which is highly matched to the MATLAB simulations. The main contributions of this work can be summarized as follows:1. The proposed techniques provide continuous beam steering with high accuracy rather than switched beam steering or discrete beam steering techniques. II. The required beam steering is simply achieved by only adjusting the amplitude and repetition rate of the utilized perturbation pattern that is fully controlled. III. The elements' excitations (magnitude and phase) are kept constant throughout the entire steering range. That completely avoids the design of complex and expensive feeding networks. On the other hand, the existing beam steering techniques are mainly based on utilizing n-bit phase shifters that are complex and expensive. Also, the accuracy of main beam steering depends on the phase quantization errors of the utilized phase shifters arising from the limited number of bits per phase shifter. IV. Although the EPP has been employed for pattern nulling or side lobe cancellation, it has been utilized in a novel manner for achieving continuous beam steering techniques that can be applicable for beam steering of millimeter wave patch antenna arrays as described in the paper. V. With an HPBW decrease of around \(3^{\circ}\) at the extremities of the steering range, the first technique, EPP-BSA, offers a wide steering range with a width of \(102.72^{\circ}\). While at the extremes of the steering range, it experiences a high SLL of \(-2.668\) dB. VI. The second technique, SLL/EPP-BSA, provides a steering range of width \(61.46^{\circ}\) with fixed HPBW and \(SLL<-10\) dB over the entire steering range. VII. A proposed PAA thinning approach is introduced to realize the proposed EPP-BSA technique. It allows for precise array thinning to select the desired active \"ON\" antenna elements and turn off \"OFF\" the other elements to configure the designed EPP pattern to steer the main beam in a specific direction with the desired radiation properties.