2D mm-Wave Beam Steering via Optical True-Time Delay and Leaky-Wave Antennas

In this paper we outline a concept to provide 2-dimensional photonic-assisted beam steering at mm-wave frequencies by utilizing leaky-wave antennas and integrated optical beam forming networks. Thereby, heterodyne detection is employed to tune the RF for leaky-wave antenna (LWA) beam scanning by remotely changing the optical frequency of a tunable laser. Beam steering in the other dimension is provided via an optical true time delay (TTD) beam forming network, which is compatible to the LWA beam scanning even for multiple GHz of bandwidth. Through wavelength-division multiplexing and optical filters, multiple beams can be generated even at the same RF. To prove the concept a system based on discrete components is set up and used to demonstrate 2D beam steering of a 1 Gbit/s data signal in the 60 GHz band over 1.5 m wireless distance.