No.
To do DBF.. you need Analog to Digital Converter (ADC). Ideally in every single TRM's thus making it "Element Level" DBF.
However particularly in X-band or higher frequency. The cost of implementing ADC is rather prohibitive. Thus subarray scheme was born, which ADC is only implemented in a Cluster of TRM's which formed subarrays, and these subarrays are formed which then form the full antenna aperture. This is the most popular scheme and also do well in improving the antenna frequency bandwidth (as the bigger AESA or phased array antenna) goes, the narrower the bandwidth, with current beamsteering technology.
You can still have AESA radar without ADC means the signal will be fully analog from front to back but usually ADC is implemented in the receive stage to digitize the signal coming from the traditional analog beamformer.
