Open AccessPhotonic true time delay beamforming technique with ultra-fast beam scanning
Author(s) -
Lihong Zhang,
Ming Li,
Nuannuan Shi,
Xinyi Zhu,
Shumin Sun,
Jian Tang,
Wei Li,
Na Zhu
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
optics express
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.394
H-Index - 271
ISSN - 1094-4087
DOI - 10.1364/oe.25.014524
Subject(s) - optics , wavelength , materials science , true time delay , laser , phased array , beamforming , photonics , beam steering , fiber laser , optoelectronics , antenna (radio) , beam (structure) , physics , telecommunications , computer science
A photonic-based true time delay (TTD) phased array antenna (PAA) with ultra-fast angle scan is proposed and experimentally demonstrated. A tunable TTD is realized using a wavelength-swept laser and an array of dispersive elements. The key novelty of our work is the ultra-fast angle scan using an ultra-fast wavelength-swept laser source, which is constructed by a gated multi-wavelength laser (MWL) and a dispersion compensation fiber (DCF). In our experiments, a wavelength-sweep time between two adjacent wavelengths is only several nanoseconds for wavelength spacing of 2.4, and 3.2 nm. We successfully realized an ultra-fast angle scan from 0 to 43° with a step of 8.8° in 12.48 ns.