State of the Active Phased Array Technology

After more than 20 years from vision to reality active electronically scanned array (AESA) antennas reached a mature level. Improved antenna and system performances, high flexibility by modular and scalable architectures as well as related technologies are success factors for military and commercial applications. Significant cost reduction efforts have to be performed in order to accelerate the change to this antenna generation. To overcome this problem emerging technologies and advanced architectures are anticipated and will pave the way for highly sophisticated antenna performances and multi-functional sensors. This paper presents a general view on the AESA technology with reference to representative examples.