Publication

A lightweight active phased array antenna is presented, integrating transmit-receive modules (TRMs) and digital beamforming using radio-frequency system-on-chip (RFSoC). The radiating elements employ a corrugated structure for primary and secondary radiators, enabling lightweight, low-profile, and reliable conformal operation under bending along horizontal, vertical, and diagonal axes. Dual-polarization is supported for both transmit and receive, with power amplification on the transmitter (TX) side and low-noise amplification on the receiver (RX) side, while RFSoC provides digital beamforming. The active 4×4 antenna array achieves an effective peak array gain of 35.1 dB for the transmit case and 36.2 dBi for the receive case. The antenna performance is validated from 1.175 GHz to 1.25 GHz for a single element, 1 × 4 subarray, and 4 × 4 array in flat configuration and on cylindrical surfaces with 50 cm radius, demonstrating robust beamforming and low performance degradation, making the approach well suited to size-, weight-, and power-limited UAV platforms.

Researcher/Author: 

Lead Co-Investigator: Prof Koen Mouthaan

Researchers: Mohammad Ameen, Yiyang Bai, Peizhuo Yang 

Name of Conference: 2026 20th European Conference on Antennas and Propagation (EuCAP)

Date of Conference: 19-24 April 2026

Conference Location: Dublin, Ireland

Published in: IEEE Xplore

Date Added to IEEE Xplore: 11 August 2026

To download the paper, please proceed to:  

DOI:  

https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/11612337