Phased-array beam steering using optical true time delay technique

Abstract An optical dispersion technique for phased-array beam steering is proposed and analyzed. Optical true time delay using a high-dispersion compensation fiber (HDCF) and a phased array antenna (PAA) can provide a continuous radio-frequency squint-free beam scanning. When the dispersion of the fabricated DCF-C band is as high as −1020±31 ps/nm/km, the laser wavelength can be tuned from 1549.95 to 1550.2 nm. The experimental results confirmed that the scanning angle of far field radiation patterns for proposed technique can be tuned to have a range 51° (from −22° to +29° ) at frequency of 5.9, 12.7 and 17 GHz.

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