Two-dimensional optical architectures for the receive mode of phased-arrayantennas

We propose and experimentally demonstrate two optical architectures that pr ocess the receive mode of a p x p element phased-array antenna. The archite ctures are based on free-space propagation and switching of the channelized optical carriers of microwave signals. With the first architecture a direc t transposition of the received signals in the optical domain is assumed. T he second architecture is based on the optical generation and distribution of a microwave local oscillator matched in frequency and direction. Prelimi nary experimental results at microwave frequencies of similar to 3 GHz are presented. (C) 1999 Optical Society of America.