Optically controlled serially fed phased-array transmitter

A new optically controlled phased-array system has been developed that has all the advantages of true time delay (TTD), yet only requires one tunable laser, one optical modulator, and one fiber-optic grating unit. A two-element serial-feed transmitter has been assembled and tested to demonstrate the feasibility of this novel concept. Experimental results include TTD operation from 6-12 GHz using both 10 and 1 ns pulses transmitted to five different directions.