A method and apparatus is disclosed herein for a direct drive mechanism for driving cells (e.g., liquid crystal (LC) cells, RF MEMS cells, etc.). In one embodiment, the antenna comprises an antenna element array having a plurality of antenna elements with each antenna element having one or more cells (e.g., liquid crystal (LC) cell, RF MEMS cell, etc.); drive circuitry coupled to cells in the antenna element array to provide a voltage to each of the cells; and memory to store a data value for each cell to determine whether the cell is on or off.