A Novel Technique for a Low-Cost Digital Phased Array Design

Phased arrays have been exclusive to military applications due to their high cost and system sophistication. Recently, there has been a high demand for low-cost phased arrays with reduced complexity by both military and commercial sectors. In general, all the elements of an array receive the same replica of the desired signal (same information) at different time delays due to the position of each element (unique information). The goal is to eliminate the redundant information received by different elements and collect only the unique information. Therefore, the total amount of information gathered by the array elements is decreased, thus reducing the complexity of the receiver/transmitter system. As the result, the required bandwidth for the single RF path will be equal to the bandwidth of the signal. Maximum number of the array elements which in turn can be supported with a single receiver will be defined by the ratio of the RF frequency to the signal bandwidth. We have shown the effectiveness of this technique both via analysis and simulation.