OPTICAL BEAM FORMING TECHNIQUES FOR PHASED-ARRAY ANTENNAS

Three optical beam forming techniques are identified as applicable to large spaceborne phased array antennas. They are 1) the fiber replacem ent of conventional RF phased array distribution and control component s, 2) spatial beam forming, and 3) optical beam splitting techniques. Two novel optical beam forming approaches, i.e., the spatial beam form ing with a ''smart pixel'' spatial light modulator (SLM) and the optic al beam splitting approaches are conceived with integrated quasi-optic al components. Also presented are the transmit and receive array archi tectures with the new SLM.