Dynamic Visualization of Antenna Patterns and Phased Array Beam ...

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Dynamic Visualization of Antenna Patterns and 

Phased Array Beam Steering 

Brent Bauman, Student Member, IEEE, Andrew Christianson, Student Member, IEEE, 

Andrew Wegener, Student Member, IEEE, William J. Chappell, Member, IEEE 

 

Abstract—Antenna education is often hindered by the fact that 

radiation patterns are hard to visualize (RF electromagnetic 

waves are invisible) and require complicated, expensive 

equipment to measure. To solve this problem we have built a wall 

which illuminates when RF energy is directed at it. This allows 

immediate visualization of an antenna’s radiation pattern and 

concepts such as wireless propagation, polarization, gain, and 

even phased array beam steering. A low power LED rectenna 

array is used to create the visualization wall. We have also 

developed a multicolor LED rectenna which changes color 

depending on incident power. Also included is a phased array 

antenna with a crystal oscillator and power amplifier on the same 

board. This board allows the user to control the phase of signals 

fed to each of four columns of a 16 element patch array using only 

a rotary selector switch. This allows instructors to demonstrate 

the principles of phased array beam steering in real time all with 

a self contained system cost of less than $1500. 

(a) 

Index Terms—Antenna Competition 2010, rectenna, 

electronically steered array. 

A 

I. INTRODUCTION 

NTENNA education generally consists of theoretical and 

mathematical demonstrations which result in polar plots 

of antenna gain. For a trained antenna engineer these plots are 

meaningful and are very useful in understanding a particular 

antenna’s performance. However, for beginners the plots are 

less than intuitive and are a real disconnect from an actual 

understanding of the radiation properties. Three dimensional 

polar plots available in software packages like Ansoft HFSS 

have added a level of visualization but are still abstract to a 

novice. Furthermore, this difficulty in visualizing is not 

addressed by current measurement techniques which involve 

expensive and complicated equipment not to mention a need 

for an anechoic chamber – something not available at most 

high schools and even some universities. Even with this 

specialized equipment the visualization is delayed, 

Manuscript received May 1 2010. 

B. Bauman is with Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, USA, 47907 (email: 

babauman@purdue.edu). 

A. Christianson is with Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, USA, 

47907 (e-mail: christaj@purdue.edu). 

A. Wegener is with Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, USA, 47907 

(e-mail: awegener@purdue.edu). 

W. J. Chappell is with Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, USA, 47907 

(e-mail: chappell@purdue.edu). 

(b) 

Fig. 1. Overall system in operation in (a) broadside and (b) first phase shift 

off broadside. Note the antenna array in the foreground illuminating the 

wall of rectennas with LEDs beyond. The beam shifts without adjusting the 

position of the transmit array, only turning the dial selector on the back. 

transmission is measured as the antenna is rotated or scanned 

and afterwards a polar plot can be created. 

We sought to address this disconnect and the high cost of 

the associated equipment by creating a system which allows 

instant visualization of antenna patterns with a small pricetag. 

We have built a set of 3.3 GHz patch antennas which connect 

through a matching network to rectifiers which convert the RF 

energy into a DC voltage. This voltage is applied across an 

LED causing it to illuminate in proportion to the amount of RF 

power received. We have also designed and assembled a 

phased array antenna which can steer its beam between 8 

different states in the horizontal plane. To keep cost down and

phase(phaseLargeBit..S(2,1)) 

phase(phas 

S 

eM edium Bit..S(2,1)) 

phase(phaseSm 21 

Phase (degrees) 

allBit..S(2,1)) 

phase(S(2,1)) 

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allow even classrooms with no other RF equipment to use the 

system we generate the 3.3 GHz signal on a crystal oscillator 

then amplify it for transmission. That means the entire system 

is self contained and does not require any signal generator or 

other equipment. An example of the LED wall illuminated by 

our phased array antenna panel is shown in Fig. 1. The entire 

system is fabricated and populated by an external boardshop 

meaning that no special fabrication equipment or expertise is 

necessary for the user. 

As a side project we have developed a multicolor LED 

rectenna which changes color as a function of incident power. 

This offers another level of visual interest to the LED wall and 

could be especially helpful in capturing the attention of 

younger students. This rectenna is not included in the final 

system price description but could be fabricated for minimal 

additional cost. 

We believe that either element of this system, the LED wall 

or the phased array panel would be useful to demonstrate 

antenna theory to all levels of student. Taken together they 

offer a powerful demonstration system that will facilitate 

antenna education from the high school through graduate 

school level. 

II. DESIGN OF ANTENNA SYSTEM 

There are two devices in our system, an electronically 

scanned 16 element antenna array, and a set of antennas 

connected to rectifiers and LEDs. We will describe the design 

of each in the following subsections. 

A. Electronically Scanned Array 

The 16 element patch antenna array is made on a 3 layer 

laminated board with Rogers 4350B dielectric. We used a 

0.79 mm board for the RF routing and circuitry. The center of 

the board is nearly a solid ground plane with slots to feed the 

patch antennas on the opposite side which are 1.57 mm from 

the ground plane. This allows smaller lines on the routing freq side = 

due to the thinner substrate and efficient antennas on the other 

side due to the thicker substrate. Overall the array is 22.8 cm 

by 30.5 cm. The following subsections explain each of freq the = 

major components. 

signal generator capacity connected to other types of antennas, 

or as a phased array when the output is jumpered back onto the 

board into the RF distribution network. 

Phase Shifter 

We constructed a three bit delay line phase shifter. It was 

created on .030 inch Rogers 4350B (dielectric constant 3.66). 

We used four SPDT switches (PN: AS196-307LF) to switch 

between the three pairs of micro strip lines (see Figure 2b). 

Each curved delayed line provides a constant phase offset 

over its straight line pair. Each pair corresponds to 1 bit. The 

smallest bit provides 45 o of phase shift, the medium bit 

provides 90 o of phase shift and the largest bit provides 180 o of 

phase shift. Using combinations of these phase shifts any one 

of the four shifters can be set to have a phase of 0 to 270 o , in 

increments of 45 o , offset from any other phase shifter. 

We use these shifters to set 8 states that provide smooth 

beam form steering. To achieve this one of the four shifters is 

permanently set in the in phase position. Though this phase 

shifter is essentially locked in place we still include the 

switches to ensure the phase through them and their loss is 

identical to the other rows. 

The first state sets all shifters to the in phase path. The 

second state sets each shifter +45 o offset from its left most 

adjacent phase shifter. The third state than chooses each 

shifter to be +90 o offset from its left most adjacent phase 

shifter. This continues with +45 o being added to the offset for 

each subsequent state. Changing this phase offset 

correspondingly alters the degree of max gain in relation to the 

patch antenna plane. Measured results of the phase shifter are 

shown in Fig. 2 which shows the difference in phase between 

the through state (“NoBitPhase”) and each of the other delay 

paths. The designed phase shifts are are 45 o , 90 o , and 180 o 

and measured shifts shown in Fig. 2 are 50.5 o , 92.4 o , and 

178.7 o respectively. This level of accuracy is sufficient for a 

No B itP hase 

S ma llB itP ha se 

simple antenna demonstration unit. 

3.3 0 0GHz 

fre q= 3 .30 0 GHz 

p ha se (S (2 ,1))=5 9.8 74 

p ha se (pha seS m allB it..S (2 ,1 ))=9.4 00 

M ed iumB itP ha se 

3.3 0 0GHz 

p ha se (p hase Me d ium B it..S (2 ,1 ))=-3 2.5 7 7 

L a rg e B itP ha se 

fre q= 3 .30 0 GHz 

p ha se (pha seL arg eB it..S (2 ,1 ))=-11 8.8 6 9 

Voltage Controlled Oscillator 

The voltage controlled oscillator creates a 3.3 GHz signal 

with 1 dBm of output power. The chip is manufactured by 

Crystek and requires little circuitry to enable. The output is 

fed into an SMA connector to connect to the Power Amplifier. 

20 0 

10 0 

0 

N oB itP ha se 

S m a llB itP ha se 

Me dium B itP hase 

Amplifier 

We use the high power amplifier manufactured by RFMD 

(PN: SZM-3066ZSR). It is a 2 W amplifier that works from 

3.3-3.8Ghz. The amplifier is supplied and biased by a 5V DC 

power source that is also used for the digital logic biasing. It 

amplifies the 3.3GHz signal from the network analyzer to a 

34dBm output. The output of this amplifier is fed out of an 

SMA connector. This allows the array to function either in a 

-10 0 

-20 0 

L arg eB itP ha se 

2 .0 2.2 2.4 2. 6 2. 8 3.0 3.2 3.4 3 .6 3 .8 4.0 

F requency freq, GHz (G H z) 

Fig. 2. Measured reflection coefficient in dB as a function of frequency. 

Note the patch is closely matched to 50 at the design frequency of 3.3 GHz.


2W 

R FM D 

PA 

C rystek 

V C O 

C ontrol Logic 

R otary 

S w itch 

R F Switch 

C ontrol 

Legend 

H L 

L H 

S M A 

C able 

W ilkinson 

P ow er 

D ividers 

50 

50 

S w itch C ontrol Lines 

(S w itches 1-12) 

1 2 3 4 

5 6 7 8 

50 

50 

50 

9 10 11 12 

50 

50 HL 

LH 

LH 

HL 

50 

13 14 15 16 

4 3-bit Phase Shifters 

(a) 

Slot Fed Patch 

Antenna 


Layer 

(b) 

RO4350 (1.57 mm, 62 mil) 

Ground 

Plane 

RO4350 (0.79 mm, 31 mil) 

Routing 

Layer 

(c) 

Fig. 3. Electronically steered array (a) block diagram, (b) layout (red is routing layer, blue is ground plane (negative), and green is antenna layer), and (c) 

stackup.

Reflection Coefficient (dB) 

dB(s1_1) 

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0 

-5 

-10 

-15 

-20 

-25 

-30 

2.0 2.2 2.4 2.6 2.8 3.0 3.2 3.4 3.6 3.8 4.0 

freq, GH z 

Multi Layer Patch Antenna 

We designed a slot fed patch antenna with HFSS before 

building and testing it on a laminated 30 and 60 mil Rogers 

4350B board. The antenna uses a slot coupling method that 

maximizes the H field in the slot by allowing an approximately 

/4 open stub past the slot and matches the antenna to 50 . 

One of the sixteen patch antennas is indicated in Fig. 3b. The 

antenna has a measured reflection coefficient of -27 dB as 

shown in Fig. 4 and an efficiency of approximately 79% as 

simulated in HFSS. 

Phase Shifter Control Logic 

The control logic is used to bridge the gap between the user 

input (rotary switch) and the proper biasing states of the 16 

SPDTs. Since each switch requires two control pins, a low 

and a high, we needed a custom decoder and 2 hex inverters. 

We settled on a Gal26cv12B PLD. The control program 

designed for this chip uses a simple lookup table that takes the 

state of the 8 pins from the rotary switch and converts them to 

the appropriate 12 states. These 12 outputs are than run to 12 

inverters and one pin on each SPDT on three of the phase 

shifters. Each of the inverter outputs is then run the second pin 

on the 12 SPDTs. The DC lines run between the rotary switch 

the PLD, to the inverters, to the SPDTs. They are kept away 

from RF lines and the antennas themselves and isolated from 

RF path by capacitors where necessary. 

The PLD is available for purchase from Dataman 

preprogrammed for $39.27 as indicated in Table II. Many 

universities have PLDs on hand and the capability in house to 

program them. This capability could reduce or remove the 

cost of this component from the system. Table I lists the 

connections made by the PLD. 

Overall Design 

The overall layout of the RF subsystems is very important. 

All separate RF lines before and after the phase shifter need to 

be of equal length so the only phase added to the line comes 

from the phase shifter. 

We chose Wilkinson power dividers to provide power 

splitting because these are a simple way to split power with 

low reflection and even phase response. 

m1 

Frequency (G H z) 

m1 

freq= 3.300 GHz 

dB (s1 _1)=-2 7.0 20 

V alle y 

Fig. 4. Measured reflection coefficient in dB as a function of frequency. 

Note the patch is closely matched to 50 at the design frequency of 3.3 GHz. 

TABLE I 

LOGIC CONTROL LINE CONNECTIONS 

PLD Pin # Pin Connections 

Pin 1 

Gnd 

Pin 2 

Gnd 

Pin 3 

Gnd 

Pin 4 

Gnd 

Pin 5 

Gnd 

Pin 6 Rotary Switch Pin #1 

Pin 7 

Pwr (+5V) 








Pin 15 V1 of SPDT #3 






Pin 21 

Gnd 







Pin 28 

Gnd 

B. LED Rectenna Module 

The LED Rectenna array is made of 70 small 41.6mm x 

54.1mm tag boards displayed on a backing board. This tag is 

made of three main entities, a 3.3GHz single layer patch 

antenna, a matching network, and a voltage boosting rectifier 

with LED. This device takes a polarized 3.3GHz signal and 

turns it into visual light. 

Single Layer Patch Antenna 

We designed a single layer patch antenna on 1.57 mm thick 

Rogers RO4350B. The antenna is designed to be matched to 

50 ohms by adjusting the depth that the 50 ohm microstrip line 

penetrates it. 

Rectifier/LED 

The rectifier is a four stage charge pump that uses four 

Schottky diodes and four capacitors. The load is a low power 

LED with a low turn on voltage. 

We used a charge pump to provide voltage boost to the 

LED to increase the rectified voltage above the turn on voltage 

of the LED (see Fig. 5a). Adding more stages increases the 

DC voltage output, however losses also increase degrading 

performance. We balanced these effects and chose a 4 stage 

rectifier. 

Matching Network 

A matching network is used to provide maximum power 

transfer from the antenna to the rectifier with the low power 

LED load. 

To implement the matching network we utilize microstrip


Transmit 

Array 

(a) 

Multicolor 

Patch 

Farthest - Red 

Multicolor 

Patch 

(a) 

Transmit Array 

Transmit Array 

(b) 

Closer - Purple 

Multicolor 

Patch 


Layer 

(b) 

RO4350 (1.57 mm, 62 mil) 

Ground 

Plane 

(c) 

Fig. 5. Rectenna (a) schematic and (b) layout (red is routing layer, blue is 

ground plane (negative), and green is antenna layer), and (c) stackup. 

lines and series inductors. There is a short length of line 

leading away from the rectifier followed by a 5.6 nH inductor, 

another length of line, and a 2.2 nH inductor. 

Closest - Green 

(c) 

Fig. 6. Multi-color LED demonstration. Increasing power changes tag color 

from (a) red to (b) purple to (c) green. 

Multicolor Rectenna 

We also have created a multicolor rectenna which uses 3 

LEDs in a single package, red, green, and blue (Digikey PN: 

350-2096-1-ND, $2.17 each). The circuit is laid out to 

balance the brightness of the LEDs. Due to their different turn 

on voltages different colors illuminate at different incident RF 

Power levels. This is shown in Fig. 6. Although illuminating 

the blue and green LEDs requires the transmitter to be close to 

the wall for sufficient power the red LED still illuminates at a 

distance with little loss in sensitivity compared to the single 

color rectenna. If so desired this design may be slightly higher 

cost option for interested schools. 

III. PHOTOS OF COMPLETED SYSTEM 

Figure 7 shows a photograph of a completed rectenna tag. 

Fig. 7 Completed rectenna tag


(a) 

Fig. 8 Completed transmit phased array. (a) Routing layer (0.79 mm thick) and (b) antenna layer (1.57 mm thick). 

Figure 8 shows the completed transmit array panel front and 

back. The array clearly has some manual wire jumpers which 

will need to be installed by the end user. These were 

necessary for DC routing in order to avoid another board layer 

which would have made the manufacturing significantly more 

expensive. Also the array shown does not have the an 

integrated oscillator and amplifier. These subsystems are still 

off panel at this point but will be placed in the lower right 

section of the board where the DC supply currently is (see Fig. 

8a). 

IV. ASSEMBLY AND OPERATION INSTRUCTIONS 

Because we have offloaded the manufacturing to an external 

board house very little assembly is required. To reduce cost 

we have purchased our own parts from various vendors such as 

Digikey and procured free substrate from Rogers through their 

university sample program [1]. We also found a board 

manufacturer, Electronic Interconnect, which allows the user 

to supply their own board which they then process [2]. As 

mentioned previously there will be 4 jumper connections 

which will need to be soldered by the end user. These will be 

simple connections easily completed by a novice solderer and 

are necessary to keep the board 3 layers, critical to keeping 

(b) 

board manufacturing cost down. 

Assembly starts by ordering all components needed for this 

project (see Table II). The PLD needs to be ordered from 

Dataman with our VHDL program already copied onto the 

chip. Substrate can be obtained free by educational 

institutions from Rogers [1]. Once the parts are obtained they 

can be sent for ably at a board house. 

After fabrication of the boards it will be necessary to mount 

the rectennas to something. We have had success with foam 

core board and double stick tape. For a more reconfigurable 

setup a felt sheet and self adhesive Velcro on the rectennas is 

also possible. 

V. SAMPLE LESSONS 

A. Wireless Power Transmission 

Transmitting power from one point in the room to another, 

especially in an amount sufficient to illuminate an LED, may 

be the first concrete illustration of electromagnetic waves for 

high school level students. This lesson would focus on a 

qualitative understanding of electromagnetic fields and how 

they propagate. More advanced lessons may include 

derivations beginning with Maxwell’s equations all the way 

through Friis’ transmission equation.


Fig. 9 Screen capture of Mathematica Player program for dynamically 

visualing array patterns. There is a brief description followed by a diagram 

describing the problem and finally the interactive antenna array plot. 

B. Beam Shape 

The pattern of the antenna when all antennas are fed with 

uniform phase will be round as observed on the rectenna array. 

This lesson could start with the pattern of a single patch, and 

then progress to understanding the array factor which will 

increase gain as the effective antenna area increases. Using 

the transmit antenna array the concept could be demonstrated 

by masking some of the array elements with aluminum foil and 

observing the effect on beam shape (one antenna gives a larger 

beam width; a row will give an oblong shape). 

C. Polarization Effects 

When the transmit antenna is rotated 90 o from the receive 

array the antennas will be cross-polarized. This results in 

minimal power being absorbed by the rectennas; thus the 

LEDs will not be turned on. By rotating the transmit array to 

bring it back into the same polarization as the receive array, 

the LEDs relight. The lesson taught about this effect can 

explain polarization in a practical way, illustrating its 

importance as an antenna design consideration as opposed to 

simply using vector math to illustrate that the antennas will not 

transmit power from one to the other. 

D. Beam Steering 

This lesson could explore the fundamentals of electronic 

beam steering with a discussion of the effect of feeding each 

element with a different phase of current. Calculations such as 

these are frequently done in the undergraduate microwave 

engineering class at our university, but are not reinforced with 

experiment due to the complexity involved in phased array 

antenna design and fabrication. Our supplied system provides 

a way around that to allow real time visual understanding of 

the affect of phase shift on an antenna array’s pattern. The 

transmit antenna array will have a rotary knob allowing 

selection of one of 8 phase shift states. This will allow the 

beam to steer to 8 positions indicated by a different set of LED 

lights being illuminated at each stage. To supplement this 

lesson as promised in the proposal we developed a program 

which allows real time calculation and display of antenna array 

patterns with sliders to allow the user to control both spacing 

and phase shift across the array. The program is implemented 

using Mathematica and can be used by anyone with the freely 

downloadable Mathematica Player [3]. The program is 

available 

here: 

http://www.wolfram.com/solutions/interactivedeployment/publ 

ish/download.jsp?id=0852331133&filename=AntennaArrayVi 

sualization.nbp until May 15, 2010 or from the authors upon 

request. Fig. 9 shows a screen shot of the program. 

E. Patch Antenna Theory 

Both the receive array and transmit array are made up of 

patch antennas. This lesson would teach the fundamentals of 

patch antenna design, including resonant modes and coupling 

mechanisms. In understanding this lesson, the physics behind 

the polarization demonstration will be brought out as well as 

an understanding of the beam shape of a single patch antenna. 

It should be noted that the system incorporates both a slot fed 

3 layer patch antenna and a 2 layer microstrip line patch 

antenna. This allows a more general understanding of 

coupling structures as the class will be provided with to 

demonstrations of how to properly couple an antenna. 

F. Matching Networks 

The rectennas have a mixed lumped element/transmission 

line matching network to match the antennas to the input of the 

rectifier. This lesson would be a follow up to a series on 

understanding input impedance and Smith Charts. With that 

understanding the student would be able to infer the 

impedance looking into the rectenna’s rectifier knowing the 

boards layout and inductor values. Furthermore they could 

alter the matching network by placing other components or 

simply shorting the inductors and view the importance of 

matching as the sensitivity of the mismatched patch drops 

precipitously. If so desired we could provide information 

about rectifier input impedance to be used in example 

calculations. 

VI. LIST OF PARTS 

The parts necessary to assemble the system are listed in 

Table II. This includes information about suppliers and cost as 

well as hyperlinks to datasheets where applicable. 

VII. CONCLUSION 

Antenna education has until now lacked a mechanism for 

instant feedback and visualization of antenna properties that 

will both excite and instruct students. We believe that the 

LED rectenna wall we have developed addresses that problem 

with a dynamic, real time mechanism for visualizing and 

understanding antenna patterns. Furthermore, the phased array 

panel portion will introduce this exciting technology to all 

levels from high school students through graduate students.


We believe the combination of these two components will 

serve as a powerful tool for recruiting and educating the next 

generation of antenna engineers. 

http://rogerscorp.com/acm/forms/form_university.aspx. 

[2] Electronic Interconnect, Available: http://www.eiconnect.com/. 

[3] Wolfram Research Inc., Wolfram Mathematica Player. Available: 

http://www.wolfram.com/products/player/download.cgi . 

REFERENCES 

[1] Rogers Corporation, University Program, Available: 

Item 

Part Number 

Brent Bauman is a Senior in electrical and computer engineering at Purdue 

University. He has accepted a job after graduation at the Crane Naval 

Surface Warfare Center in Crane, IN working with the Navy’s electronic 

TABLE II 

COMPONENT LIST/BUDGET 

Distributor’s 

Part Number 

Distributor Qty. Price Ea. 

($) 

Total 

Price ($) 

RECTENNA BOARDS 

2.2nH Inductor IMC0603ER2N2S 70-IMC0603ER2N2S Mouser 70 0.15 10.50 

5.6nH Inductor IMC0603ER5N6J 70-IMC0603ER5N6J Mouser 70 0.15 10.50 

64pF Capacitor GRM1885C1H620FA01D 81-GRM185C1H620FA01D Mouser 280 0.15 42.00 

Schottky Diode SMS7630-005LF SMS7630-005LF RFMW 140 0.74 103.60 

LED sml-211utt86 511-1292-1-ND Digikey 140 0.17 23.80 

PCB Assembly 70 8.00 560.00 

ELECTRONICALLY SCANNED ARRAY 

50 ohm resistors CRCW0603100RFKEA 71-CRCW0603-50-E3 Mouser 32 0.014 0.45 

100 ohm resistors CRCW0603100RFKEA 652-CR0603-JW-101ELF Mouser 15 0.03 0.45 

81- 

7.5pf capacitors GRM1885C1H7R5DZ01D GRM185C1H7R5DZ01D Mouser 80 0.06 4.80 

1.1k ohm resistors ERJ-2RKF1101X P1.10KLCT-ND Digikey 10 .098 .98 

4.02k ohm resistors ERJ-2RKF4021X P4.02KLCT-ND Digikey 10 .098 .98 

825 ohm resistor CRCW0402825RFKED 541-825LCT-ND Digikey 10 .083 .83 

2.74k ohm resistor ERJ-2RKF2741X P2.74KLCT-ND Digikey 10 .098 .83 

47k ohm resistor ERJ-2RKF4702X P47.0KLCT-ND Digikey 10 .098 .98 

3k ohm resistor CRCW04023K00FKED 541-3.00KLCT-ND Digikey 10 .083 .83 

1 uF capacitor 1206YC105JAT2A 478-5178-1-ND Digikey 10 1.089 10.89 

3.9 pF capacitor UVK105CH3R9JW-F 587-1021-1-ND Digikey 10 .165 1.65 

.1 uF capacitor C0402C104K8PACTU 399-3027-1-nd Digikey 10 .024 .24 

6.2 nH inductor LQW15AN6N2D00D 490-1141-1-ND Digikey 10 .818 3.18 

4.7 nH inductor LQW18AN4N7D00D 490-1162-1-ND Digikey 10 .329 3.29 

1.5 pF capacitor C0402C159C5GACTU 399-1002-1-ND Digikey 10 .061 .61 

10 pF capacitor 04025U100FAT2A 478-5717-1-ND Digikey 10 .419 4.19 

High Power Amplifier SZM-3066ZSR 25R5121 Newark 1 19.98 19.98 

Voltage Controlled 

Oscillator CVCO55BE-3206-3306 393-0116 

Allied 

Electronics 1 16.39 16.39 

.031” Board mount SMA 

connector 142-0701-881 J657-ND Digikey 2 9.63 19.26 

SPDT Switch AS218-321LF 863-1010-1-ND Digikey 16 1.12 17.92 

IC Hex Inverter 296-1630-5-ND Digikey 2 0.62 1.24 

Programmable Logic 

Device (Preprogrammed) GAL26V12B N/A Dataman 1 39.27 39.27* 

Rotary Switch 

(8 position) 50DP45-01-1-AJN GH7353-ND Digikey 1 17.17 17.17 

5 volt Power Supply 709-GS60A05-P1J Mouser 1 44.00 44.00 

PCB Assembly 1 425.00 425.00 

ACCESSORIES 

12” SMA Cable CCSMA-MM-RG316DS-12 744-1276-ND Digikey 1 14.87 14.87 

TOTAL COST $1400.68 

*The PLD will be much cheaper if the users have PLD programming capability as most universities do.


warfare and radar systems. 

Andrew Christianson is a fifth year PhD student in electrical and computer 

engineering at Purdue University. He has accepted a job after graduation at 

the Crane Naval Surface Warfare Center in Crane, IN working with the 

Navy’s electronic warfare systems. 

His primary research is in passive intermodulation distortion specifically 

techniques for measuring and mitigating it. 

Andrew Wegener is a third year PhD student in electrical and computer 

engineering at Purdue University. 

His primary research is novel packaging techniques for high power 

components with a focus on creating cheap, high performance phased array 

systems. 

William Chappell is an asoociate professor in electrical and computer 

engineering at Purdue University. 

His primary research is novel packaging techniques for high power 

components with a focus on creating cheap, high performance phased array 

systems.

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