Hardware-Compressive Photonic Multi-Beam Receive-Only Array

Users of phased arrays with large numbers of elements (e.g., 40,000 to 400,000) wish to have the capability of steering multiple beams simultaneously and to maximize the array bandwidth and dynamic range. Optical fiber"s light weight, small size, and immunity to electromagnetic interference have motivated researchers to propose photonic techniques for steering large arrays. In Phase I of the SBIR program described here, Photonic Systems, Inc. proposes to use modeling and simulation software to evaluate the RF performance (e.g., dynamic range, array gain and beam shape as a function of beam position and of RF frequency which determines the useable RF bandwidth and isolation of receive signal beam ports from one another) of our hardware-compressive photonic multi-beam receive-only array architecture, and to design affordable experiments to test the model"s validity. With inputs from discussions with system integrator Raytheon Integrated Defense Systems (Tewksbury, Massachusetts), we will update the cost estimates shown in this proposal with much more rigorous analysis of expected hardware procurement and assembly costs to enable a clear, quantitative comparison of our hardware-compressive architecture to other candidate approaches.