Low-Cost Phased Array Consisting of a Mixture of Active and Passive Elements

This paper proposes a low-cost phased array consisting of a mixture of active and passive elements. In this antenna array, only 2/3 elements are connected to a T/R module (called active elements). The remaining 1/3 elements are excited by the active elements instead of T/R modules (called passive elements). Compared with the traditional phased array, the proposed antenna array can reduce the antenna channels and T/R modules by 1/3, significantly reducing the cost of the antenna array. Simulation results show that the proposed antenna array can scan the beam in the range of 0° to 50°, with similar gain and sidelobe performance to traditional antenna arrays.