I am studying the ADAR3000/ADAR3001 multi-beam beamformer architecture described in the application note "Low SWaP Ka-Band Beamforming ICs for SATCOM Payloads" and would appreciate clarification regarding the scalable 16-beam/16-element implementation.
The application note states that four ADAR3000 beamformer ICs can be combined to realize a 16-beam/16-element phased array. I understand that each ADAR3000 accepts four RF beam inputs and produces four outputs corresponding to four antenna elements. However, I am uncertain about the physical RF implementation of one tile.
Specifically, I would appreciate clarification on the following points:
- For one 4-element tile, are the four outputs corresponding to the same antenna element from the four ADAR3000 devices physically combined using an external 4:1 Wilkinson combiner before feeding the PA and antenna element?
- If so, could you provide a conceptual diagram or PCB layout showing how one complete tile (4 ADAR3000 + 4 combiners + 4 antenna elements) is implemented?
- In the 16-beam example, do the four RF inputs of each ADAR3000 correspond to four independent frequency channels, or can they operate at the same RF carrier frequency? If they can share the same carrier, how are the beam signals kept independent after the external RF combiners?
- Is there any reference design, evaluation board layout, or additional application note that illustrates the complete RF routing for one tile?
I would like to understand the intended implementation of the ADAR3000 architecture before proceeding with my own design.
Thank you very much for your assistance.
Edit Notes
Paraphrased the last sentence.[edited by: Sirous at 1:32 AM (GMT -4) on 3 Aug 2026]
