Photonic system and method for tunable beamforming of the electric field radiated by a phased array antenna
Drummond, M. V.
;
Nogueira, R.N.
Instituto de Telecomunicações
Invention Title: Photonic system and method for tunable beamforming of the electric field radiated by a phased array antenna
Patent Nr.: EP10809198
Type: Patent
Regional Coverage: EPO
Grant Status: Granted
Priority Date: 08-07-2010
Filing Date: 23-01-2013
Granting Date: 23-03-2018
Tech Offer: High-capacity photonic beamforming for phased antennas
Abstract
This invention discloses a photonic system to beamform the electric field yield by a phased array antenna. The system function relies on a photonic tunable delay line, which consists on an optical Mach-Zehnder interferometer with a predefined time delay difference between arms. The time delay is tuned by adjusting the coupling ratio between the power applied to each one of the interferometer's delay lines. Three embodiments are proposed, wherein one of them just uses a single delay line and a single monchromatic light source, independently of the quantity of the array elementary antennas.
