Ultrawideband Modular RF Frontend Development for Photonically Enabled Imaging Receiver

• Published in: IEEE microwave and wireless technology letters (Print) Vol. 34; no. 6; pp. 805 - 808
• Main Authors: Shi, Shouyuan, Wang, Fuquan, Abney, Jeremy, Aranda, Zion D., Schneider, Garrett J., Schuetz, Christopher, Harrity, Charles, Shreve, Kevin, Zablocki, Mathew, Dontamsetti, Samhit, Lawrence, Robert, Prather, Dennis W.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Piscataway IEEE 01-06-2024; The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)
• Subjects: Antenna arrays; Bandwidths; Coherent optical detection; Electro-optic modulators; electrooptic modulator; Loss measurement; Millimeter waves; Modular systems; Optical amplifiers; Optical imaging; Optical modulation; Optical receivers; Phased arrays; phased-array antennas; Radio frequency; radio over fiber; RF frontend; Ultrawideband; ultrawideband (UWB)
• ISSN: 2771-957X; 2771-9588
• DOI: 10.1109/LMWT.2024.3395410

This letter presents a modular-based RF frontend developed for photonically enabled phased-array systems that are capable of ultrawideband (UWB) operation from microwave to millimeter-wave (mmW) frequencies. The <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">1\times 8 </tex-math></inline-formula> modular architecture with integrated antennas, low-noise amplifiers (LNAs), and electrooptic modulators is reconfigurable and scalable to form 2-D phased arrays of any size. The developed phased-array system demonstrates the ability to process multiple wide-bandwidth RF beams simultaneously, yielding unmatched beam-bandwidth product (BBP).