Photonic WDM Digital Beamformer

An innovative concept for a scalable Digital Beamformer that can be applied to the full range of Navy radars/RF communication is proposed. The concept is photonics based and will support transmit/receive applications over the 0.1 to 40 GHz, and V bands. The design provides a digitally controlled True Time Delay based Beamformer effectively adaptive to a phased array in any portion of the spectral coverage. The Phase I approach will develop the dual channel photonic WDM true time delay and demonstrate the key characteristics followed by a Phase II Program that will miniaturize the design and test a multi channel implementation. The team of Agiltron and University of Northern Texas is working closely with BAE Systems on this unconventional approach leveraging our recent breakthroughs in manufacturing high performance fiber delay lines and polymer waveguide technologies. The proposed approach overcomes the deficiencies associated with electronic beam forming components, offering frequency independent performance by controlling the phase and amplitude in a small, lightweight package with minimal power consumption. Our approach provides unprecedented performance in terms of wide dynamic range, low noise and fast dynamic reconfigurability.