A New Look at the Coding in Time-Modulated Arrays

Abstract

In this paper, we show that the digital code bits used in the coded time-modulated arrays (TMA) can be interpreted as vector elements, and with this new interpretation, a better understanding of the relationship between the codes and the amplitude/phase of the generated harmonic signals is obtained. Using such interpretation, we first select the proper codes for the maximum radiation in a coded TMA, and then we show that one can easily perform the beam steering in a TMA by electronically shifting the bits of the selected codes. Through full-wave simulations, we demonstrate the beam steering of a TMA without the use of any phase shifter, and only by shifting the digital code bits. The proposed interpretation can play an important role in reducing the complexity of the code selection in controlling of TMAs.

Keywords

• antenna array
• beam steering
• digital code
• metasurface
• time-coded modulation
• time modulated array