• Korean Journal of Optics and Photonics
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.287-294
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• 2005

In this paper, an optical true time-delay (TTD) for two-dimensional (2-D) phased array antennas (PAAs), composed of a multi-wavelength optical source and a fiber optic delay line matrix consisting of $2\times2$ optical switches with optical fiber connected between cross ports, has been proposed. A 2-bit $\times4-bit$ optical TTD for 10-GHz 2-D PAAs has been implemented by cascading a wavelength dependent TTD (WD-TTD) and a wavelength independent TTD (WI-TTD). The unit time delay for WD-TTD and WI-TTD have been chosen as ${\Delta}T=12ps$ and $\Delta\tau=6ps$, respectively. Time delay have been measured at all radiation angles. The maximum delay error for WD-TTD was measured to be 3 ps due to jitter incurred from gain switching. For the case of WI-TTD, error was within ${\pm}\;1\;ps$. The proposed optical TTD for a 2-D PAA has the following advantages: 1) higher gain compared to one-dimensional linear PAAs, 2) stabilization of optical power and wavelength by using a multi-wavelength optical source, and 3) fast beam scan and simple operation due to electronic control of the $2\times2$ optical switches matrix on a column-by-column basis.