Optical beamforming system for satellite communication

We present an optical beamforming system for satellite communication using optical true time delay. A simple 2-by-1 optical beamformer is used as an initial step to validate the proof-of-concept of our proposed system. The beamformer uses a variable fibreoptic true time delay line to delay an optical signal which is used to control the phase of received radio frequency signal. Simulation results are used to further analyse the system performance. The goal is to realize an NxN beamformer with N >2 on a compact integrated optical chip. The proposed beamformer is shown to be a promising solution for a wideband satellite communication link.