Optically switchable scanning antenna

Abstract

The ability to obtain dynamical control over an antenna radiation pattern is one of the main functions, desired in a vast range of applications, including wireless communications, radars and many others. Widely used approaches include mechanical scanning with antenna apertures and phase switching in arrays. Both of those solutions have severe limitations, related to scanning speeds and implementation costs. Here we propose and experimentally demonstrate a possible paradigm solution, where the antenna pattern switching is achieved with optical signals. Our architecture employs high quality ceramic-based driven element and optically switchable reflectors. The latter elements are realized with a set of split ring resonators, loaded with a tandem of varactors and photodiodes. Resonant frequency of each reflector is controlled with an incident light illumination. Fast switching between optically driven reflectors allows achieving scanning between several directions, which cover the entire 2π azimuth section. The current architecture can link to a new paradigm shift, where extremely fast optical switching can allow performing high quality scans over the whole three-dimensional space, which is highly demanded in a broad range of modern applications.