Tradeoff Analysis of Commercially Available X-Band Phased Array Reference Designs

Phased array system designers balance a variety of tradeoffs to meet RF, digital, mechanical, and form factor requirements to architect a solution for their end application. An overview of commercially available phased array architectures is detailed, showcasing every-element digital direct sample, everyelement digital heterodyne, and hybrid beamforming heterodyne architectures. A comparison of the Radio Frequency front end design, clocking solution, data converter selection, and DC power is provided. Data converter monolithic integration of hardened digital signal processing is also discussed, along with techniques to optimize system-level power consumption.