Optically controlled phased antenna arrays

Abstract

This paper reflects the state-of-the-art and future perspectives of a new and rapidly growing field, dealing with fiber-optic and optoelectronic technology application for ultra wide band control of phased antenna arrays, radiating in microwave and millimeter wave frequency bands. The optical beamforming technology offers the true time domain (TTD) squint free linear and two dimensional, continuous and discrete beam forming and beam steering, operation in transmit and receive modes, with ultra wide instantaneous signal bandwidth (/spl sim/several GHz) continuous waves and ultra short (/spl sim/1 ps) pulses with single and multiple beam antenna far field.