MULTIBEAM RADIO FREQUENCY PHOTONIC BEAMFORMER USING A MULTI-SIGNAL SLOW LIGHT TIME DELAY UNIT

摘要

A photonic beamformer is disclosed and is configured to transmit or receive a plurality of RF input signals from a plurality of antennas. The beamformer receiver includes a plurality of optical modulators, each optical modulator being configured to modulate each of the RF input signals onto an optical carrier, each carrier having a different wavelength. The beamformer receiver also includes a plurality of optical amplifiers, each optical amplifier being configured to vary the optical power of one optical carrier based on a weighting input and generate a weighted optical carrier. The beamformer receiver also includes a plurality of multi-beam optical true-time delays (TTD), each TTD being configured to receive all of the weighted optical carriers and generate a plurality time delayed optical carriers. The beamformer receiver also includes a plurality of detectors configured to detect each of the plurality time delayed optical carriers and generate an electrical signal that represents each of the plurality of received RF input signals.