FEROELECTRIC SCANNED ARRAY (FESA)

A novel beamforming network is proposed to electronically scan two independent beams in a conformal phase array. The beamformer utilizes ferroelectric materials in the RF distribution network to control the amplitudes and phases of the array element excitations. One beamformer board is required for each beam and four low power DC voltages per beamformer are needed to achieve total hemispherical scan coverage. This approach is potentially much lower cost and lighter weight than more conventional approaches utilizing discrete phase shifter components or A/D converters. It also offers true time delay beamforming at much less complexity than lens feed or photonics-based approaches.