Physics / mechanism
Phased-array antennas steer beams electronically by controlling the phase (and amplitude) of signals fed to each element in an array. Constructive interference reinforces radiation in the target direction; destructive interference suppresses sidelobes. Key parameters: element count (32–4096+ in production systems), phase resolution (4–6 bits typical), scan angle (±60° standard), EIRP, noise figure, and fractional bandwidth. Steering latency is microseconds vs. milliseconds for mechanical gimbals. SoA mmWave phased arrays (24–77 GHz) integrate T/R modules in advanced CMOS or SiGe BiCMOS at 16–28nm nodes; companies like Anokiwave, Movella, and Marvell ship multi-channel beamformer ICs at volume. Satellite comms (LEO terminals), 5G base stations, automotive radar, and AESA defense radars are the primary volume markets.
Competitive landscape
Competing and adjacent approaches: mechanical steering (cheap, slow, no beam-splitting), switched-beam arrays (lower cost, coarser control), and optical phased arrays (OPAs) for LiDAR and free-space optical comms. Metasurface/RIS (reconfigurable intelligent surfaces) offer passive beam manipulation without active T/R chains but lack full beam-forming flexibility.
Companies using
Connected ideas
Sources
Frontier (open questions)
- To be added.