Indirect controlled phased source

We propose here a novel phase controllable oscillator to realize phase shift for the phased array. The phase of the oscillator is controlled by the phase of reference frequency of a phase locked loop. Since the reference frequency is usually lower than 100 MHz, the phase shifting can be much easier, have a lower cost, and be more accurate than that in microwave phase shifters. A four-element scanning array antenna using this novel phase control technique is demonstrated with a scanning range of ±40° in this letter. © 2006 IEEE.