The Impact of Phase-Shifter Sharing on Beam Parameters in Optically Steered Antenna Arrays

We study the robustness of an optically controlled phased aray in the face of phase shift inaccuracies. The array employs a recently-introduced optical phase shifter based on a piezo-electric crystal. The advantages that such shifters entail in terms of alleviating control requirements are achieved at the expense of higher sensitivity to phase shift errors. The paper borrows the interleaving technique from coding theory to change the internal architecture of the array. The result is a partial restoration of beamshape properties degraded by the sharing of one phase shifter by many antennas.