Wideband Active Electronically Scanned Array Electronic Warfare Jammer Transmitter System Integrated into Fixed-Wing Aircraft

This paper presents an active electronically scanned array (AESA) electronic jamming transmission system integrated within the wings of fixed-wing platforms such as fighter jets and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) for stealth purposes. The proposed system comprised a 1×16 linear phased array antenna, GaN-based high-power amplifier (HPA), and eight high-power transmitters, each incorporating a multifunction chip (MFC). Each MFC included a true time delay (TTD) with a real-time adjustable delay from 0 to 511 ps (9 bits) and a digital attenuator (ATT) with an adjustable attenuation from 0 to 31.5 dB (6 bits), enabling precise beam steering. To reduce the beam-steering control time, a parallel control serial-to-parallel conversion (SPC) block was implemented in the MFC, resulting in a reduction in the number of clock cycles to less than 20% compared with conventional serial control. For an efficient heat dissipation, the top and bottom housings of the transmitters were designed as liquid cooling plates. In a near-field test facility, the system demonstrated beam steering over ±45° in azimuth at 5° intervals, and each individual beam exhibited a fan-beam pattern with a vertical angle of ±25°. The system performance in terms of the effective isotropic radiated power (EIRP) exceeded the target by up to +7.61 dBm.