Fundamental Energy Limits of Digital Phased Arrays

Abstract

This paper develops fundamental limits of digital phased arrays and proposes to use this as a map for the future technology investment in this area. Phased arrays, which are becoming ubiquitous in everything from vehicles, to communication systems including cell phones, to drones, satellites, and of course military applications. There is a recent trend toward digital phased arrays where each element in the antenna array is digitized. This allows monolithic integrated circuit integration as well as providing new capability due to digital signal processing. Digital phased arrays are increasingly being implemented with reconfigurable logic. Digitization and reconfigurability comes at a cost of power, which is increasingly becoming the limitation in these systems. This paper develops the fundamental energy limits of digital computation, applies this to phased arrays, and discusses directions for potential future digital phased array development.