Phased array antennas for mobile communications

An antenna system including antenna elements and a tracking method is considered a key technology in mobile communication systems. A phased array antenna has been considered the most favorite candidate because of many attractive characteristics such as a low and compact profile, high-speed tracking and potentially low cost performance for vehicle antennas in mobile communications. On the other hand, it has several such disadvantages as beam steering error, loss in feed lines and an increase of noise level in a receiving frequency band. Some of phased array antennas have already been used in satellite communications, and some of them are under development. This paper overviewed basic performance and some examples of phased array antennas for especially satellite mobile communications.