A passive electronically scanned array, as opposed to AESA, is a phased array which has a central RF source (such as a magnetron, a klystron or a travelling wave tube), sending energy into (usually digitally-controlled) phase shift modules, which then send energy into the various emitting elements in the front of the antenna. AESA devices, in contrast, have each of their elements contain its own RF source. A PESA radar is therefore simpler to construct than an AESA.
Most phased array radars in the world are PESA.
List of PESA radars
- AN/MPQ-53
- AN/SPQ-11 Cobra Judy
- AN/TPQ-36 and AN/TPQ-37 Firefinder radars
- AN/TPS-59
- AN/APG-164 B-1B (Northrop/Grumman formally Westinghouse ESG)
- AN/APQ-181
- Flap Lid and Tomb Stone for the SA-10 and SA-20 systems
- Rajendra Radar[1]
- Zaslon, first-ever electronically scanned radar in a fighter jet
- RBE2