Assured Reference Technology Research (ARTHR) Project. Delivery Order 0004: Fiber-Optic RF Distribution (FORD) (PREPRINT)

Abstract : The use of fiber optics is considered herein as a means to distribute Radio Frequency (RF) signals across Printed Circuit Boards (PCB). The use of fiber optics is studied with an emphasis on reducing inter-board Electromagnetic Interference (EMI). High performance RF circuits are especially sensitive to EMI and other Radio Frequency Interference (RFI), resulting in poor circuit to circuit isolation, spurious signals, additional filtering requirements, and increased shielding constraints. Fiber-optic cable has beneficial characteristics of extremely low cross coupling and is not conductive along its length; this equates to tremendous promise as a means for distributing RF signals with limited EM/RFI. The innovative concept is applicable to PCBs which have a level of RF signals traversing near multiple sensitive RF circuits.