Research and development of wideband photonic components

• Main Author: Tjin, Swee Chuan.
• Other Authors: School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering
• Format: Research Report
• Published: 2008
• Subjects: DRNTU::Engineering::Electrical and electronic engineering::Optics, optoelectronics, photonics
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/2909
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

It is known that the high performance radars and communication systems require the use of phased array antenna (PAA) for beam steering purpose. In order to overcome some squint problems, photonic true-time-delay (TTD) units are usually used to keep the stable beamforming directions at different microwave frequencies in the PAA systems. This is because photonic TTD units are promising technique to form wideband phased array beam with the advantages of low loss, small size, lightweight and immunity to electromagnetic interference in photonic phase shifter network. Apart from the TTD units, the formation of PAA also requires the usage of fiber grating prism beamsteerer, wide wavelength tunable lasers, wideband power amplifiers and photodetectors with precise specifications. The main objective of this project is to develop a photonic phase shifter network covering the frequency range of 6 to 18 GHz for PAA beam scanning. Our task of this project is to ensure the development of various critical component technologies including circuits for microwave/photonic conversion, optical TTD phase shifters and trans-impedance amplifiers for the photodetectors to satisfy the requirement.