Phased array antennas

…and how they relate to droplets in a pond

Phased arrays explained with drops of water (credit: Mark Hickle, author of the following video)

Mark Hickle explains the concept of phased array antennas with water droplets in a pond via a YouTube video. The video shows how varying the timing of the water droplets changes the interference pattern in the pond.

The same principle applies to phased array antenna where changing the phase of individual antenna elements can be used to steer the beam.

Phase shifting of the transmitted signals can be used to steer the beam pattern (source: Wikipedia)