Reducing the Number of Amplitude Controls in Radar Phased Arrays

The need to reduce the number of active elements in radar arrays claims for developing new synthesis approaches able to reduce the control points, i.e., the number of transmit/receive modules (TRM) needed to fulfill the design constraints, is presented. As the large part of the TRM costs are related to the active parts (HPA-high power amplifier), a hybrid method for reducing the number of amplitude controls is proposed. This allow the design of new array architectural solutions where the scanning capabilities only rely on phase controls.