Reconfigurable Delay Time Polymer Planar Lightwave Circuit for an X-band Phased-Array Antenna Demonstration

A 4-bit polymer optoelectronic true-time delay (TTD) device is demonstrated. The planar lightwave circuit (PLC) is composed of monolithically integrated low-loss passive polymer waveguide delay lines and five cascaded 2 times 2 polymer thermooptic switches. Waveguide junction offsets and air trenche...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of lightwave technology 2007-03, Vol.25 (3), p.883-890
Main Authors: Howley, B., Wang, X., Chen, M., Chen, R.T.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Antennas
Applied sciences
Circuit properties
Circuit simulation
Circuits
Delay
Delay effects
Delay lines
Devices
Electric, optical and optoelectronic circuits
Electronics
Exact sciences and technology
Fabrication
Integrated optics. Optical fibers and wave guides
integrated optoelectronics
Integrated optoelectronics. Optoelectronic circuits
Microwave circuits, microwave integrated circuits, microwave transmission lines, submillimeter wave circuits
Offsets
Optical and optoelectronic circuits
Optoelectronic devices
phased arrays
Planar waveguides
plastics
Polymers
Programmable control
Semiconductor electronics. Microelectronics. Optoelectronics. Solid state devices
Switches
Switching circuits
Trenches
waveguide bends
Waveguide junctions
waveguide switches
Waveguides
X-band
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Description
Summary:A 4-bit polymer optoelectronic true-time delay (TTD) device is demonstrated. The planar lightwave circuit (PLC) is composed of monolithically integrated low-loss passive polymer waveguide delay lines and five cascaded 2 times 2 polymer thermooptic switches. Waveguide junction offsets and air trenches simultaneously reduce the bending loss and device area. Simulations are used to optimize the trench and offset structures for fabrication. The 16 time delays generated by the device are measured to be in the range from 0 to 177 ps in 11.8-ps increments. The packaged PLC has an insertion loss of up to 14.9 dB, and the delay switching speed is 2 ms. An eight-element X-band phased-array antenna system is constructed to demonstrate the beam-steering capabilities of the 4-bit-delay devices. The TTD devices are shown to steer the far-field radiation pattern between 0deg and -14.5deg
ISSN:0733-8724
1558-2213
DOI:10.1109/JLT.2006.890459