Tutorial: Optical Arrays and RF-Photonic Devices

This tutorial will review recent progress in the development of optical and photonic devices as they apply to RF phased array antennas. It will begin with an overview of RF-photonic device design, fabrication, and integration for both electro-optic modulators (EOMs) and high-power photodetectors (PDs). It will then transition to their application to advanced phased array systems that offer near unlimited beam-bandwidth-product (BBP), with low latency and low power beamspace processing. Using this approach, the entire RF beamspace is "imaged" onto corresponding PDs where every beam is produced and read-out simultaneously. In so doing, the beamspace can be captured by a focal plane array, thereby rendering a real-time video of the RF environment. Alternatively, each beam can be routed to a corresponding PD for signal recovery within that beam, which affords interference mitigation and reduced non-linear intermodulation effects. In addition, by strongly leveraging the microelectronics manufacturing industry, chip-scale optical systems have been implemented, using photonic integrated circuits (PICs), that enable a profound reduction in size, weight, and power (SWaP). Such advances are destined to have a significant impact on the development, application, and commercialization of next generation phased array systems, particularly for phased array transmit (Tx) and receive (Rx) antennas that provide ultra-wideband operation with time-of-flight full beamspace processing.