Antenna arrays technologies for advanced wireless systems

Phased array antennas have and will continue to be a critically important component in the development of future wireless systems with applications in communications, radar, and satellite technologies. In spite of the significant advances in the design of modern phased array antennas, there continue to be significant and growing need for developing high performance systems that are also low cost and with beam steering capabilities. In this paper we describe some of the antenna array designs that focus on achieving this goal. We will start with one approach that is based on an analog phase-shifting approach and involves an integrated use of ferroelectric materials and the Continuous Transverse Stub (CTS) antenna array technologies. A complementary design which is based on digital beamforming and the utilization of the Hybrid Smart Antenna technique recently developed by our group will then be described. This will be followed with comments regarding the trade-off between the analog and digital phase shifting techniques. We will conclude the chapter with a description of a novel ultra-wideband and low profile ground plane which is based on a hybrid ferrite and Electromagnetic Band Gap (EBG) materials design. In all cases simulation results and experimental validation, whenever available, will be presented and aspects of the required future work to fully enable these technologies will be discussed.