Microcomb-based true-time-delay network for microwave beamforming with arbitrary beam pattern control

Abstract

Microwave phased array antennas (PAAs) are very attractive to defense applications and high-speed wireless communications for their abilities of fast beam scanning and complex beam pattern control. However, traditional PAAs based on phase shifters suffer from the beam-squint problem and have limited bandwidths. True-time-delay (TTD) beamforming based on low-loss photonic delay lines can solve this problem. But it is still quite challenging to build large-scale photonic TTD beamformers due to their high hardware complexity. In this paper, we demonstrate a photonic TTD beamforming network based on a miniature microresonator frequency comb (microcomb) source and dispersive time delay. A method incorporating optical phase modulation and programmable spectral shaping is proposed for positive and negative apodization weighting to achieve arbitrary microwave beam pattern control. The experimentally demonstrated TTD beamforming network can support a PAA with 21 elements. The microwave frequency range is $8\sim 20\mathbf{GHz}$, and the beam scanning range is $\pm 60.2^{\circ }$. Detailed measurements of the microwave amplitudes and phases are performed. The beamforming performances of Gaussian, rectangular beams and beam notch steering are evaluated through simulations by assuming a uniform radiating antenna array. The scheme can potentially support larger PAAs with hundreds of elements by increasing the number of comb lines with broadband microcomb generation.

arXiv comment10 pages, 9 figures, Journal of Lightwave Technology, 2018

References in corpus (6)

• Mode interaction aided excitation of dark solitons in microresonators constructed of normal dispersion waveguides
• Universal Dynamics of Kerr Frequency Comb Formation in Microresonators
• Optical frequency comb technology for ultra-broadband radio-frequency photonics
• Microresonator Kerr frequency combs with high conversion efficiency
• Modelocking and Femtosecond Pulse Generation in Chip-Based Frequency Combs
• Observation of Correlation between Route to Formation, Coherence, Noise, and Communication Performance of Kerr Combs

Cited by in corpus (25)

• Optical data transmission at 44Tb/s and 10 bits/s/Hz over the C-band with standard fibre and a single micro-comb source
• Microwave and RF signal processing based on integrated soliton crystal optical microcombs
• Phase-encoded RF signal generation based on an integrated 49GHz micro-comb optical source
• Optical Kerr soliton crystal microcomb source for RF photonic fractional differentiation
• Photonic RF channelizer based on a 90 wavelength optical soliton crystal 49GHz Kerr microcomb
• Comparison of photonic transversal RF spectral filters based on different optical microcombs
• High bandwidth temporal RF photonic signal processing with Kerr micro-combs: integration, fractional differentiation and Hilbert transforms
• Photonic radio frequency and microwave integration based on a multi-wavelength 49GHz Kerr microcomb source
• Applications of integrated optical microcombs
• Highly tunable broadband RF photonic fractional Hilbert transformer based on a Kerr soliton crystal microcomb source
• Integral order photonic RF and microwave signal processors based on soliton crystal Kerr micro-combs
• Photonic Microwave and RF Channelizers using Kerr Micro-combs
• Review: Graphene oxide 2D thin films for high performance nonlinear integrated photonics
• A silicon integrated microwave photonic beamformer
• Reconfigurable radiofrequency filters based on versatile soliton microcombs
• Soliton crystal Kerr microcombs for high-speed, scalable optical neural networks at 10 GigaOPs/s
• Dual-polarization RF Channelizer Based on Kerr Soliton Microcomb Sources
• Free spectral range electrical tuning of a high quality on-chip microcavity
• High Performance Optical Filters Using Three Waveguide Coupled Sagnac Loop Reflectors
• Emerging applications of integrated optical microcombs for analogue RF and microwave photonic signal processing
• High 3rd Order Optical Kerr Nonlinearity of PdSe2 Di-chalcogenide 2D Films for Nonlinear Photonic Chips
• Photonic single perceptron at Giga-OP/s speeds with Kerr microcombs for scalable optical neural networks
• Single photonic perceptron based on a soliton crystal Kerr microcomb for high-speed, scalable, optical neural networks
• Broadband photonic RF channelizer with a Kerr soliton crystal micro-comb
• Soliton regulation in microcavities induced by fundamental-second-harmonic mode coupling