Abstract

An optical true-time delay (OTTD) engine based on a polynomial White cell (quadratic) is designed and simulated with commercially available components with a time delay increment of at least $25\mathrm{ps}$ for wideband beam steering in the frequency range of $2–18\mathrm{GHz}$. The simulated quantification of aberration losses show for the first time that aberration losses in the null cell are about $5.0\mathrm{dB}$. However, for the longer delay arms, there is an additional loss of about $3.2\mathrm{dB}/\text{delay}$ each time a beam travels an arm with a lens train used as a delay element compared with the same delay generated without a lens train. We present a design and simulation of a low-loss delay arms quartic cell without a lens train by using a separate field lens for each delay arm for efficient wideband beam steering.

© 2009 Optical Society of America

Design and demonstration of a switching engine for a binary true-time-delay device that uses a White cell

Richard Higgins, Niru K. Nahar, and Betty Lise Anderson
Appl. Opt. 42(23) 4747-4757 (2003)

Polynomial-based optical true-time delay devices with microelectromechanical mirror arrays

Betty Lise Anderson and Rashmi Mital
Appl. Opt. 41(26) 5449-5461 (2002)

Design of delay elements in a binary optical true-time-delay device that uses a White cell

S. Kunathikom, B. L. Anderson, and S. A. Collins
Appl. Opt. 42(35) 6984-6994 (2003)

Optical true time delay for phased-array antennas: demonstration of a quadratic White cell

Betty Lise Anderson and Craig D. Liddle
Appl. Opt. 41(23) 4912-4921 (2002)

Demonstration of a linear optical true-time delay device by use of a microelectromechanical mirror array

Amber Rader and Betty Lise Anderson
Appl. Opt. 42(8) 1409-1416 (2003)