Fiscal Year:
2003
Title:
Photonic Phased Array Antenna
Agency:
NASA
Contract:
NAS5-03056
Award Amount:
$69,987.00
Abstract:
The present invention provides an inexpensive and low loss fiberoptic manifold for lightweight, high-efficiency, electronically steerable, phased-array antennas. Our approach is sate-of-the-art in design and closely coupled with proven volume fiber optic component manufacturing techniques, holding a promise of realizing practical optical digital delay with performance and cost that have not been achieved before. By using all solid-state inorganic magneto-optic material construction, the proposed switch overcomes the limitation in speed and long-term reliability associated with other approaches. The proposed compact, light-weight, ultra reliable, and low power consumption photonic digital beamforming phase array antenna can potentially be part of spaceship?s skin eliminating the need for complex out-space antenna deployment mechanisms. The advanced technology also potentially addresses the development of next generation critical radar components for optically fed transmit/receive, signal up/down conversion, RF and DC signal distribution, and phase shifting. A high-speed and fault tolerance fiberoptic 4 bit reconfigurable true time delay device will be demonstrated in Phase I.
Small Business Information at Submission:
AGILTRON Corporation
13 Henshaw Street Woburn, MA 01801
EIN/Tax ID:
043539587
DUNS:
N/A
Number of Employees:
Woman-Owned:
No
Minority-Owned:
No
HUBZone-Owned:
No