Electronic steerable MEMS antennas

Recent advances in the technology of radiofrequency (RF) circuits, such as RF-microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) make it possible to practically implement electronically reconfigurable antenna arrays paving the way to innovative communication systems including applications such as next generation mobile communications, radar applications, remote sensing and imaging. This paper reviews the basic implementations of such antenna systems, namely phased arrays and reflectarrays, as well as the algorithms allowing for beam shaping, beam steering, null placing etc., as well as the typical RF-MEMS circuitry for both amplitude and phase control.