Co-Design and Validation Approach for Beam-Steerable Phased Arrays of Active Antenna Elements With Integrated Power Amplifiers

Abstract

An approach for designing a beam-steering active phased array of antenna elements with integrated power amplifiers (PAs) is presented. It is based on an amplifying active integrated unit cell (AiUC) concept, where the AiUC comprises a radiating slot element, a GaN high electron mobility transistor (HEMT), its input matching and DC biasing/feeding circuitry. The HEMT is embedded in the antenna element, being directly impedance-matched to HEMT's drain output, i.e. without using any intermediate and potentially lossy impedance matching network. The proposed co-design approach involves a full-wave analysis of the AiUC passive part (naturally including elements mutual coupling effects) along with the subsequent fullsystem harmonic balance simulations. Furthermore, we extend the standard definition of the scan element pattern (SEP) to the active scan element pattern (ASEP) that accounts for nonlinear effects of PAs on AiUC performance. We show that the ASEP is, in general, power-dependent and has a different shape as compared to the SEP. The proposed approach has been demonstrated for a K-band AiUC design example. It was verified through an active waveguide simulator, which is equivalent to the 23.7 • H-plane beam-steering case. Measurements are in good agreement with simulations, revealing AiUC 47% peak drain efficiency and 33 dBm maximum radiated power. The predicted scan range is ±60 • and ±37 • in the E-and H-plane, respectively.

Wide Scan, Active K-band, Direct-Integrated Phased Array for Efficient High-Power Tx-Generation

“…Hence, a traditional antenna validation procedure is not possible. A unit-cell approach was proposed in [26] for partial validation. To obtain the prototype validation for the AIPAA, we here settle for validating certain information through measurements, supplemented with simulated and post-processed results of the input M.N.…”

“…In Table I we compare the system performance of the proposed 1×5 AIPAA with 5 excited ports and the previously reported designs [14], [22], [23], [26]. The proposed AIPAA and [26] utilize the same GaN HEMT device.…”

“…In Table I we compare the system performance of the proposed 1×5 AIPAA with 5 excited ports and the previously reported designs [14], [22], [23], [26]. The proposed AIPAA and [26] utilize the same GaN HEMT device. To summarize the system performances, the proposed AIPAA provides both a high G p and high PAE in more than 13% frequency bandwidth well-suited for advanced antenna systems in mm-Wave applications.…”

“…An array with peak efficiency of 21.5% for ±26 • scan coverage at 44 GHz was achieved in [25]. In [26], an approach for designing an active integrated phased array antenna was presented. It is based on the advancement of [18] as an unitcell with ±60 • and ±37 • scan coverage in the E-and H-plane, respectively.…”

Frequency Diverse Array Auto-Scanning Beam Characteristics and Potential Radar Applications

“…B EAM-scanning antenna is a key requirement in many wireless systems [1]. Since mechanically beamscanning reflector antenna has slow speed of beam scanning, typical solution is to adopt phased-array antenna [2]. Phasedarray is well known for its robust capability to electronically steer its beam with high effectiveness [3], [4], the beam steering of phased-arrays in an angle is fixed for all range cells [5], [6].…”