Low cost electronically scanned arrays based on surface mount active antennas

An architecture is described that is targeted for low cost low power high gain electronically steered antenna arrays. To achieve low cost, single chip up/downconverters are assumed and very simple packaging is designed, all of which is suitable for mass production. Specifically, single layer dual polarization active antenna elements convert between RF and IF when fed by a local oscillator signal that is distributed by radiating between backplane layers. Measurements of a 16 element array prototype will be presented.