antenna array

An antenna array is a team of identical antennas placed close together and fed in a coordinated way, so their separate waves add up into one powerful, steerable beam. It is the choir-versus-soloist idea: many small voices, carefully synchronised, sound louder and more directed than one. Modern 5G base stations, radar, and Starlink terminals are all arrays of dozens or hundreds of tiny elements.

The magic is interference. Where the elements' waves arrive in step they reinforce (a bright main lobe); where they arrive out of step they cancel (nulls). By electronically delaying — phase-shifting — each element's signal, the array tilts that main lobe to any angle in microseconds, no moving parts required. This is the basis of beamforming and of placing deliberate nulls toward jammers or interferers.