Architecture for low cost electronically steered phased arrays

A series fed row-column beam steering architecture is studied for the realization of a low cost electronically steered phased array. Series feeds are used for distributing the local oscillator (LO) and for collecting/distributing the intermediate frequency (IF). Using series feeds reduces the number of panel layers and thus reduces cost. The row/column beam steering approach avoids using a phase shifter with each radiating element and drastically reduces the number of phase shifters necessary. A small prototype array is presented to demonstrate the operation of the architecture.