A Two-Stage Passive Matrix Addressing Method for Large-Scale Beam-Steering Arrays

This letter proposes a passive matrix addressing method to dramatically reduce the number of controlling (biasing) lines for large-scale beam-steering arrays. Phase shifting of each radiation element is accomplished in two stages by the row and column biasing lines located at two stacked layers, which offer a pair of orthogonal wave vectors. For an antenna array with M rows and N columns, conventional direct addressing designs need M * N biasing lines, while the proposed method needs only M+N biasing lines to complete the full-space beam-steering. The proposed method simplifies the routing of control lines and the design of driving circuits. Both theoretical and numerical analyses are provided to validate this method.