Low-loss polynomial White cell optical true-time delay engine for wideband radio frequency array beam steering

Area of Science:

• Optical Engineering
• Signal Processing
• Electromagnetics

Background:

• Optical true-time delay (OTTD) engines are crucial for wideband beam steering applications.
• Existing designs often suffer from significant signal loss, particularly in longer delay arms.
• Aberration losses in polynomial White cell designs require optimization for improved efficiency.

Purpose of the Study:

• To design and simulate a novel optical true-time delay engine.
• To minimize signal loss in wideband beam steering systems.
• To achieve a time delay increment of at least 25 ps for frequencies between 2-18 GHz.

Main Methods:

• Design and simulation of a polynomial White cell (quadratic) based OTTD engine.
• Utilizing commercially available components for practical implementation.
• Developing a low-loss delay arms quartic cell without a lens train, employing separate field lenses.

Main Results:

• The simulated null cell exhibits approximately 5.0 dB of aberration loss.
• Longer delay arms with lens trains incur an additional loss of about 3.2 dB/delay.
• The proposed quartic cell design demonstrates efficient wideband beam steering with reduced losses.

Conclusions:

• The novel quartic cell design effectively reduces signal loss in OTTD engines.
• This approach offers a more efficient solution for wideband beam steering compared to traditional lens train methods.
• The simulation results validate the potential for practical implementation using available components.