Smart electronic phase control for phased array antennas

Phase shifters are the key devices that can highly boost the performance of current electronic phased array systems. Usually by setting the element angles, the array is pointed in the direction of an incoming signal for maximum reception. In this paper, a microprocessor controlled phased array system is presented which can point in a desired direction as in conventional phased array systems. The additional feature is that even if the source changes potion relative to the original beam direction, microprocessor controlled system checks for the maximum signal direction regularly and changes the necessary phase angles of the phase shifters to point in the incoming signal direction. This is realized by continues detecting and tracking functions. Details of the design, choice of phase detectors and implementation using a linear and planar arrays swill be presented.