Phased Array With Improved Beamforming Capability via Use of Double Phase Shifters

The passive electronically scanned array (PESA) is widely used due to its simple structure and low cost. {Its antenna weights have unit modulus and thus, only the weights phases can be controlled. PESA has limited degrees of freedom for beampattern design, where only the direction of the main beam can be controlled.} In this paper we propose a novel way to improve the beamforming capability of PESA by endowing it with more degrees of freedom via the use of double phase shifters (DPS). By doing so, both the magnitude and the phase of the antenna weights can be controlled, allowing for more flexibility in beampattern design. We also take into account the physical resolution limitation of phase shifters, and propose a method to approximate a given complex beamformer using DPS. Simulation results indicate significant beamforming improvement even at low phase resolution.

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