SBIR Phase I: Miniaturized Lightweight Broadband True-time Delay Phased-array Antennas

This Small Business Innovation Research Phase I project will investiate a new miniaturized, highly efficient, and reconfigurable optical feed transmit/receive architecture for airborne and space-borne phased-array antennas. The system will provide multiple simultaneous beams for a large-scale phased-array antenna operating in broad frequency bands. The true-time delay module, employing Erbium-amplified polymer waveguide (EAPW), has great advantages in providing high efficiency, lightweight, and small size features when used in space-based radar applications. The most innovative feature is obtained by the utilization of EAPW that allows optical gain along the true-time delay lines. Optical switch technique provides large delay selections enabling the module to operate in ultra-broad radar bands. The scalable architecture due to the integration of wavelength division multiplexing devices further makes the approach power efficient and suitable for very large arrays. To demonstrate the feasibility of this project, the simulation and experimental demonstration of Erbium-amplified polymer waveguides and optical switches will be performed during Phase I. Success of these tasks will lay a solid foundation for the phase II and phase III continuation. The market for the high performance phased-array antenna transmit/receive architectures is a rapidly growing area for commercial applications, as well as for remote sensing. Design of a transmitter/receiver for commercial applications suffers very similar challenges as in military applications. Therefore, the solutions developed for remote sensing will be immediately applied to such communication systems as satellite-to-satellite communications and ground-based wireless communications.