Consequences
The thinned array curse means that while synthesized apertures are useful for receivers with high angular resolution, they are not useful for power transmitters. It also means that if a filled array transmitter has gaps between individual elements, the main lobe of the beam will lose an amount of power proportional to the area of the gaps. Likewise, if a transmitter comprises multiple individual transmitters, some of which fail, the power lost from the main lobe will exceed the power of the lost transmitter, because power will be also be diverted into the side lobes.
The thinned array curse has consequences for microwave power transmission and wireless energy transfer concepts such as solar power satellites; it suggests that it is not possible to make a smaller beam and hence reduce the size of a receiver (called a rectenna for microwave power beaming) by phasing together beams from many small satellites.
A short derivation of the thinned array curse, focusing on the implications for use of lasers to provide impulse for an interstellar probe (an application of beam-powered propulsion), can be found in Robert Forward's paper "Roundtrip Interstellar Travel Using Laser Pushed Lightsails."
Read more about this topic: Thinned-array Curse
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