Open AccessPlasmonic phased array feeder enabling ultra-fast beam steering at millimeter waves
Author(s) -
Romain Bonjour,
Maurizio Burla,
Felix C. Abrecht,
Samuel Welschen,
Claudia Hoessbacher,
Wolfgang Heni,
Simon A. Gebrewold,
Benedikt Baeuerle,
Arne Josten,
Yannick Salamin,
Christian Haffner,
Peter V. Johnston,
Delwin L. Elder,
P. Leuchtmann,
D. Hillerkuss,
Yuriy Fedoryshyn,
Larry R. Dalton,
Christian Hafner,
Juerg Leuthold
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
optics express
Language(s) - Uncategorized
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.394
H-Index - 271
ISSN - 1094-4087
DOI - 10.1364/oe.24.025608
Subject(s) - phased array , beam steering , phased array optics , footprint , optics , plasmon , antenna (radio) , extremely high frequency , microwave , control reconfiguration , optoelectronics , beam (structure) , materials science , millimeter , physics , computer science , telecommunications , paleontology , biology , embedded system
In this paper, we demonstrate an integrated microwave phoneeded for beamtonics phased array antenna feeder at 60 GHz with a record-low footprint. Our design is based on ultra-compact plasmonic phase modulators (active area <2.5µm 2 ) that not only provide small size but also ultra-fast tuning speed. In our design, the integrated circuit footprint is in fact only limited by the contact pads of the electrodes and by the optical feeding waveguides. Using the high speed of the plasmonic modulators, we demonstrate beam steering with less than 1 ns reconfiguration time, i.e. the beam direction is reconfigured in-between 1 GBd transmitted symbols.