Abstract: A phased array antenna may include a substrate, a plurality of phased array antenna elements carried by the substrate, and a central controller for providing beam steering commands and beam shaping commands. Furthermore, the phased array antenna may also include a plurality of element controllers connected to the phased array antenna elements and the central controller. Each element controller may store at least one position related value based upon physical positioning of the associated phased array antenna element on the substrate, and determine a beam shaping offset based upon the stored at least one position related value and a received beam shaping command from the central controller. Each element controller may also determine at least one phased array antenna element control value based upon a received beam steering command and the beam shaping offset.

Abstract: A phased array antenna may include a substrate and a plurality of phased array antenna elements carried by the substrate, and a plurality of element controllers connected to the phased array antenna elements. Each element controller may be switchable between inactive and active data receiving states. The phased array antenna may further include a plurality of subarray controllers and a plurality of data buses. Each data bus may connect a respective subarray controller to respective columns and rows of element controllers.

Abstract: A phased array antenna system may include a substrate and a plurality of phased array antenna elements carried by the substrate, a plurality of antenna element controllers connected to the phased array antenna elements, and at least one higher level controller connected to the plurality of antenna element controllers. The at least one higher level controller and/or lower level antenna element controllers in some embodiments may perform a processing operation on a first portion of a received multi-bit command message before receiving all bits of the multi-bit command message.

Abstract: A phased array antenna may include a substrate and a plurality of phased array antenna elements carried by the substrate. The phased array antenna may also include a plurality of antenna element controllers for the phased array antenna elements and a central controller for providing beam steering commands and edge trigger synchronization signals for the antenna element controllers. Furthermore, each of the antenna element controllers may store a respective next beam steering command and implement the respective next beam steering command as a respective active beam steering command responsive to the edge trigger synchronization signal from the central controller. The edge trigger synchronization signal may be delivered substantially simultaneously to all of the antenna element controllers, and each antenna element controller may detect the edge trigger synchronization pulse only during a predetermined time window, for example.

Abstract: A phased array antenna may include a substrate and a plurality of phased array antenna elements carried thereby and an element control device for at least one of the phased array antenna elements. The element control device may include an IC die including output circuitry, readback circuitry, and control circuitry connected to the output and readback circuitry. The element control device may further include an IC package surrounding the IC die, a plurality of output terminals connected to the output circuitry and extending outwardly from the IC package, and a plurality of readback input terminals connected to the readback circuitry and extending outwardly from the IC package. Further, respective external readback connections may extend between the plurality of output terminals and the plurality of readback input terminals. The control circuitry may cause the output circuitry to output signals on the plurality of output terminals to be read back for fault detection.