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IEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory and Techniques
Volume 48 Number 12, December 2000

Table of Contents for this issue

Complete paper in PDF format

A Transmit/Receive Active Antenna with Fast Low-Power Optical Switching

James Vian and Zoya Popović Senior Member, IEEE

Page 2686.

Abstract:

This paper presents an optically switched X-band active antenna element for half-duplex transmit/receive (T/R) applications. The antenna element is designed to be a unit cell of a quasi-optical array with fast switching between T and R and with built-in phase-shifterless beamforming. The measured performance of the active element is 14 dB gain contributed by the power amplifier (PA) in transmission and 16 dB gain contributed by the low-noise amplifier in reception, with 30 dB isolation between T and R. The switching is accomplished with only 1 µW of optical power for 1.7 µs switching time (1.7 pJ of optical energy) and a rise time of 2 ns at 10 GHz with 7 mW of optical power (14 pJ of optical energy). The design, implementation, and measured performance of the optically controlled transmit/receive circuit are presented.

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