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Simultaneous beam steering of multiple signals based on optical wavelength-selective switch

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 April 2015

Giovanni Serafino*
Affiliation:
Institute of Communication Information and Perception Technologies (TeCIP), Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna, Pisa, Italy. Phone: +39 0505492143
Antonio Malacarne
Affiliation:
National Laboratory of Photonic Networks (LNRF), CNIT, Pisa, Italy
Claudio Porzi
Affiliation:
National Laboratory of Photonic Networks (LNRF), CNIT, Pisa, Italy
Paolo Ghelfi
Affiliation:
National Laboratory of Photonic Networks (LNRF), CNIT, Pisa, Italy
Marco Presi
Affiliation:
Institute of Communication Information and Perception Technologies (TeCIP), Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna, Pisa, Italy. Phone: +39 0505492143
Antonio D'Errico
Affiliation:
Ericsson Research, Pisa, Italy
Marzio Puleri
Affiliation:
Ericsson Research, Pisa, Italy
Antonella Bogoni
Affiliation:
National Laboratory of Photonic Networks (LNRF), CNIT, Pisa, Italy
*
Corresponding author: G. Serafino Email: g.serafino@sssup.it

Abstract

A novel, photonics-based scheme for the independent and simultaneous beam steering of multiple radio frequency signals at a wideband phased-array antenna is presented. As a proof of concept, a wavelength-selective switch (WSS) is employed both as a wavelength router to feed multiple antenna elements and as a tunable phase shifter to independently control the phase of each signal at any antenna element. In the experiment, two signals at 12.5 and 37.5 GHz are simultaneously fed to the four output ports of the WSS with independent and tunable phase shifts, emulating the independent steering of two signals in a four-element phased-array antenna. The results confirm the precision and flexibility of the proposed scheme, which can be realized both with bulk components or resorting to photonic integrated circuits, especially for wide-band applications. The architecture for a possible integrated implementation of the proposed solution is presented, employing a structure based on micro-ring resonator. Starting from these results, the feasibility of an integrated version of the presented architecture is also considered. The proposed photonic integrated circuit realizing the beam-forming network might be based on tunable true-time delay, as well as on phase shift through micro-ring resonators, and could be conveniently implemented with CMOS-compatible silicon technology.

Type
Research Papers
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press and the European Microwave Association 2015 

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References

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