The More (Antennas), the Merrier: A Survey of Silicon-Based mm-Wave Phased Arrays Using Multi-IC Scaling

Phased-array antenna technology has had a broad impact for more than half a century, spanning radio astronomy and radar, and is about to ignite a significant shift in the operation of mobile communications. Its general principle is to use an array of wireless transmitters (Txs) or receivers (Rxs) to focus and steer energy. The focus is achieved by creating an interference pattern from the antenna array to enable constructive interference in the desired direction and destructive interference in all of the other directions; the steering is accomplished by modifying the delays at each antenna element in the array to control the directions of constructive and destructive interference [1]-[3].