Substrate-guided wave optical true-time-delay feeding network for phased-array antenna steering

An optical realization of the Blass matrix based on a substrate-guided wave true-time delay (TTD) module has been proposed and designed for a photonic phased-array antenna (PAA) system, which will operate from 18 to 26 GHz. It is the highest RF frequency range for system level that has been reported until now. A 3 X 8 triangular array lattice will be used and all the elements divided into 8 sub-arrays controlled optically by true-time delay signal. To avoid the squint error caused by the phase control within the subarray, we propose a new squint-free subarray steering technique, which is based on the operation of the true-time delay signals provided by our new optical TTD Blass matrix. The simulation result is given for the far-field radiation pattern of photonic PAA controlled by this technique and no squint is found. We also demonstrate an optical heterodyne system for photonic RF signals generation with conversion efficiency that approaches the theoretical limit.

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