Radio Frequency over Fiber in Airborne Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance Platforms

Photonic technology offers the potential for providing new capabilities, and significant performance improvements to a variety of microwave systems. Upgrading to a fiber optic harness for the distribution of RF signals in airborne platforms will offer a number of benefits over coaxial cables, including significantly reduced cabling size, weight and bend radius; low loss over a wide RF bandwidth; and improved signal isolation. In this Phase II effort Pharad will demonstrate a high performance, wideband scaled prototype optical RF distribution (RFD) system for airborne ISR (Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance) platforms that will lead to signification SWaP (size, weight, and power) reductions in a fielded implementation. Our Phase II program will comprise design, development, analysis, fabrication, and prototyping activities to demonstrate several functional elements of the optical RFD system: E/O (electrical-to-optical) conversion, optical signal distribution, and O/E (optical-to-electrical) conversion. We will undertake testing of the prototype optical RFD system to verify that our design meets all the performance and operational requirements. At the end of the Phase II program we will deliver to US Army CERDEC several packaged TRL5 optical RFD engineering prototype modules for further evaluation in an ISR aircraft test-bed.