A Millimeter-Wave High-Gain and Wideband 16 × 8 Phased Array Antenna Without Additional Multistage Power Dividers Using Novel Beamforming Network Architecture Based on Phase Difference Tuners

A novel beamforming network (BFN) architecture based on the phase difference tuner (PDT) radio frequency integrated circuits (RFICs) for a large phased array antenna (PAA) is proposed. This work is the development of the first BFN architecture based on PDT RFICs, which provides advantages in achieving higher gain and reducing component counts compared with the conventional architecture using vector-sum phase shifters (VSPSs). The novelty of the proposed BFN architecture lies in the simultaneous fulfillment of two key conditions: 1) the PDT RFIC simultaneously performs phase tuning and power splitting without increasing the component counts compared to the conventional VSPS and 2) the beamforming mechanism of the proposed architecture positions the PDT RFIC at each power division point and controls the phase difference between two output ports. The novelty enables high-gain advantages arising from two main factors: 1) the elimination of additional multistage power dividers, which significantly reduces cumulative insertion loss; and 2) a multistage amplification mechanism through cascading of PDTs, based on the beamforming mechanism of the proposed architecture. Based on the advantage of eliminating additional multistage power dividers, the architectural innovation inherently achieves higher gain compared to conventional architectures using VSPSs. To validate the high-gain performance of the proposed architecture, a $16\times 8$ 1-D PAA is proposed. This array achieves high gain (>40 dB), wide bandwidth (30.5–38GHz), narrow beamwidth (6°), and scanning angle up to 55°. Compared with other related works using VSPSs, the proposed BFN architecture offers a significant advantage in the gain of the BFN for a large-scale PAA.