Tutorials
Recent Developments in High Performance Panel-based Array Technology at MIT LL
Phased array technology is evolving at a rapid pace in response to the challenging needs in both military and commercial applications. The application space includes radar, communications, and electronic support, with an ever-increasing desire for higher power densities, higher frequency bands, wider operating bandwidths, dual polarization, and multiple simultaneous beams. These increasing demands on performance introduce new complexities in array architectures and technologies, all of which have a direct impact on cost. This talk will review on-going work at MIT Lincoln Laboratory to develop and demonstrate new array capabilities, while preserving a low-cost panel-based array paradigm. Examples will be shown for prototype array developments across a wide range of frequencies and applications, and will include a roadmap vision for the path forward to achieving the needs of future phased array systems.
Dr. Jeffrey S. Herd is the Group Leader of the RF Technology Group in the Advanced Technology Division at MIT Lincoln Laboratory. He is currently involved in the development of low-cost phased arrays, lightweight arrays for affordable space-based radar constellations, simultaneous transmit and receive antenna technology, real time millimeter-wave imaging systems, and RF system-on-chip architectures.
Prior to joining the Laboratory in 1999, Dr. Herd worked in the Sensors Directorate of the Air Force Research Laboratory, where he developed phased array antenna technologies, including wideband scanning arrays, multi-frequency antennas, conformal arrays, and digital beamforming arrays. From 1992 to 1994, he was a visiting scientist at the Institute for High Frequency Physics at the German Aerospace Research Establishment (DLR) in Munich, Germany.
Dr. Herd has published over 70 technical journal and conference papers, and has 14 issued patents. He is a Fellow of the IEEE, and served as an elected Administrative Committee member for the IEEE Antennas and Propagation Society. He was General Chair of the IEEE International Symposium on Phased Array Systems and Technology in 2013, 2016, and 2019. In 2012-2014, he served on the National Academy of Sciences panel for Active Scientific Uses of the Radio Spectrum.
Dr. Herd received his BS, MS, and PhD degrees in electrical engineering from the University of Massachusetts Amherst.