A new sampling scheme for digital phased arrays

A novel sampling scheme for digital phased array antennas is proposed in this paper. This technique allows us to reduce the number of analog paths to one and simplify the required processing power especially for large arrays. All the elements of an array receive the same copy of the desired signal (similar information) with different delay (unique information). We try to eliminate the common information collected by different elements and collect only the unique information, so the proposed scheme works for a desired single beam case. A mathematical derivation which shows that the array factor extracted from the resulting signal through this technique is identical to the traditional array factor is presented. Different steering angles have been applied using this new technique and the results are compared to the traditional array theory showing great agreement. Afterwards, the effect of different sampling time is studied and simulated.