PHOTONIC WIDE-BAND ARRAY ANTENNAS

Presented in this paper is an introduction to the optical control of array antennas by using fiber optic links for remote control and a photonic time shift network for wide instantaneous bandwidth, An overview of the development of a wideband conformal array designed for airborne surveillance radars is given, The paper will cover the system design and the performance of an L-band 96-element array controlled by photonics. Packaging techniques of the photonic components and the array aperture are discussed, The wideband performance of the system will be highlighted. A nano-second impulse response has been measured to demonstrate a 50% instantaneous bandwidth (550 MHz, 30 cm range resolution) for target ID and imaging. A built-in signal injection technique based on time-domain impulse measurement was used to calibrate the wideband components in the time-shift beamforming network.