Maximum directivity beam-former at 60 GHz with optical feeder

We present an optically controlled 60 GHz array antenna which may be used as a smart antenna in an envisaged broadband mobile communication system. The desired field patterns of the antenna were synthesized using the maximum directivity beam-forming algorithm which enables an optimum radio link to a selected mobile terminal to be created while the signals of other terminals are suppressed by the nulls of the antenna's field distribution. The 60 GHz signals were generated by optically heterodyning the signals of two laser diodes. The field distribution of the antenna was formed by a silica based photonic beam-forming network. The experimentally obtained data confirmed the calculated field patterns.