Automatic Phase Correction of Phased Array Antennas by a Genetic Algorithm

An automatic phase correction method for phased array antenna (PAA) systems is presented. It is based on finding the optimal phases that maximize the receiving power for a source in a given direction. The optimal phase set is estimated by a genetic algorithm (GA). To test this method we constructed a PAA breadboard with a linear 16 -element operating at the X-band, and 4-bit digital phase shifters. The results of several correction tests show good performance.