Is there any difference between sparse and thinned array antennas?
where both aims at exploring the minimum required number of array elements to achieve the desired radiation pattern.
I'm not sure there is any major difference in concept, except that I would expect a thinned array to have some elements missing, but to have more elements than a sparse array, which I would expect to be mostly empty.
It is probably also a matter of concept or approach - a thinned array may start with an array that does what is required, and elements are removed with the aim of not spoiling the pattern too much - a sparse array is designed from scratch, adding elements until the result is tolerable, or making the best of the very few elements you can have or afford.
These two approaches will require different mathematics and algorithms - although a thinned array pattern is just a full array pattern minus a sparse array pattern! - and if the full array has low sidelobes, then the thinned and sparse array will have essentially the same sidelobes as each other (with opposite phase).
I expect that usually there are more elements thinned from a thinned array than are present in a sparse array.
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