An Interleaved 1×8 Dual-Polarized L-Band Phased Array With Digital Transmit/Receive Beamforming Using RFSoC

A <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$1\boldsymbol {\times }$</tex-math> </inline-formula>8 dual-polarized L-band transmit/receive phased array, comprising four interleaved arrays, combined with an radio frequency system-on-chip (RFSoC) is presented. Full simultaneous digital beamforming (DBF) on transmit and receive in two polarizations is realized. The design of the array and the synchronization and calibration of the RFSoC channels are discussed, as well as the implementation of the beamformer trading memory usage against processing speed. Direct measurement of coupling coefficients between antenna elements using the RFSoC is also investigated and compared with scattering parameter measurements. DBF receive patterns for the two polarizations are measured when steering the main beam between <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\boldsymbol {\pm 20^{\circ }}$</tex-math> </inline-formula>. Finally, DBF transmit patterns are shown for beamsteering and for two dual-beam cases.