A joint beam control method of optical TTDs and phase shifters in phased array antennas

An optical true time delay (OTTD) for a sub-array of antennas is an important means of optically controlling phased array antennas (PAA). The paper introduces the sub-array architecture of phased array antennas based on an OTTD. It also provides a joint beam control method of OTTDs and phase shifters, by which the OTTD errors can be corrected and the pointing accuracy in phased array antennas can be improved. The results of computer simulation show the correctness of this OTTD method.