For over 25 years ITT Radar Systems has been involved in the design and development of active array technology.  In the mid 1990’s ITT Gilfillan introduced the first active array radar for Air Traffic Control (Figure 1).  Continued innovation has led to T/R modules (Figure 2) and panel arrays (Figure 3)  that provide attractive solutions for multi-mode radars, airborne SAR and multi-function shipboard antennas.  IR&D investments have resulted in solutions that are low cost and scalable in aperture and frequency. 

Government requirements are driving ESA apertures toward multi-beam, multi-function, open architecture and low cost.   In 2002 ITT demonstrated multi-beam and multi-function capability using 4 full duplex simultaneous beams for CDL, tactical Comms and video (Figure 4).   New ESA planer array technology (Figure 5)implements a modular / planar architecture that is scalable for G/T and EIRP. ITT ESA arrays offer 4 simultaneous data links for wideband communications as TCDL in the X/Ku frequency band.

Directional Ad-Hoc mesh networks under development will provide very high speed data links to ships, fixed and rotary wing aircraft, UAV’s and all types of surface elements (Figure 6).   ITT’s planar ESA is an enabling technology offering multi-beam capability permitting multiple simultaneous directional data links between network platforms
(Figure 7).