Ahmet HASTÜRK, Funda Ergün YARDIM, Nursel AKCAM

S-Band Active Phased-Array RF Beam Forming Networks

One of the most important Active Phased-Array networks is beamforming networks, which has electronically scanning feature. The performance of these networks directly effects the system’s performance. By this reason, the design of these structures requires a serious labor and experience in order to design them in a simulation environment. In this paper, the design, implementation and measurement tests of a Radio Frequency (RF) beamforming network, which is necessary for active phased-array structures, are discussed. The performance of the designed beamforming card is examined with the measurements and tests of gain, phase shifter, True Time Delay (TTD), digitally controlled attenuator, and input-output return loss. The measurement results are compared with simulation for the designed beamforming card. Both measurement results and simulation were shown that the desired performance was provided for the designed beamforming card; however, it is more convenient to feed each antenna element with a single-channeled beamforming card. In this beamforming card, each channel’s phase and amplitude can be controlled separately.

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