TRUE TIME-DELAY FIBEROPTIC CONTROL OF AN ULTRAWIDEBAND ARRAY TRANSMITTER RECEIVER WITH MULTIBEAM CAPABILITY

A true time-delay beamformer based on a fiber-optic dispersive prism i s developed and characterized. The beamformer is used to control an ul trawideband time-steered array antenna, which is a significant improve ment over inherently narrowband phased-array antennas. The time-steere d transmitter antenna consists of eight broadband spiral elements in a sparsely-populated array. In transmit mode the bandwidth is microwave -component limited to 2-18 GHz. The transmitter shows an unprecedented performance with >100 degrees azimuth steering and no observed squint over the full frequency range, We also extend the beamformer function ality and demonstrate, we believe for the first time, fully-independen t dual-beam dual-frequency ultrawideband antenna transmitter operation . Furthermore, the beamformer is shown to be capable of controlling th e transmitter under pulsed operation with microwave pulse-widths as sh ort as 75 ps. In the phase-steered receive mode, the antenna is compon ent-limited to two elements and a frequency range of 6-16 GHz. However , we can still demonstrate squint-free receiver steering over >70 degr ees azimuth over the full available frequency range.