High-Power, Aperture Coupled Photonic Antenna

A high-power charge-compensated modified uni-travelling carrier photodetector is directly integrated into an aperture coupled patch antenna. The coupling technique offers not only good isolation between feed and radiating patch substrates but also wide operational bandwidth. The antenna is developed to operate at 22 GHz with 3-dB relative bandwidth of ~20%, over which the measured effective isotropic radiated power approaches 31 dBm. The photonic antenna is integrated with a lightweight, low form factor fiber-optic feed that demonstrates potential for future wireless communications applications. The antenna's electrical and radiation characteristics are observed to be in good agreement with simulations.