Table of Contents

Abstract..........................................................................................................................i
List of Tables...............................................................................................................iii
List of Figures..............................................................................................................iv
Chapter I. Introduction..................................................................................................1
1.1. Background........................................................................................................1
1.2. Purpose and Scope.............................................................................................2
Chapter II. Theoretical Review.....................................................................................3
2.1. Previous Works..................................................................................................3
2.2. Review of Theory..............................................................................................5
2.2.1. Beam Scanning of Uniform Array..............................................................5
2.2.2. Beam Squinting..........................................................................................9
2.2.3. Free-space Method for Time-delay..........................................................11
2.2.4. Phase Shift in Fiber Optics.......................................................................13
Chapter III. System Overview....................................................................................15
3.1. Introduction......................................................................................................15
3.2. System Specification.......................................................................................15
3.3. Prototype..........................................................................................................17
3.4. Analysis and Discussion..................................................................................18
3.4.1. Reference Channel Delay.........................................................................18
3.4.2. Coaxial Delay Line Cable.........................................................................19
3.4.3. Collimator.................................................................................................21
3.5. Summary..........................................................................................................22
Chapter IV. Source and Detector................................................................................23
4.1. Introduction......................................................................................................23
4.2. Laser Diode......................................................................................................24
4.2.1. Connection and Characteristics................................................................24
4.2.2. Biasing of Laser Diode.............................................................................26
4.3. RF Spectrum Measurement.............................................................................27
4.3.1. Methods....................................................................................................28
4.3.2. Results and Discussions............................................................................29
4.4. Summary..........................................................................................................31
Chapter V. True Time-Delay Units............................................................................32
5.1. Introduction......................................................................................................32
5.2. Design Steps....................................................................................................32
5.3. Design Calculation...........................................................................................33
5.3.1. Maximum Time Delay..............................................................................33
5.3.2. Required Time Delays..............................................................................35
5.3.2.1. Analysis.............................................................................................36
5.3.3. Configurations and Dimensions...............................................................37
5.3.3.1. Configuration One.............................................................................38
5.3.3.2. Configuration Two.............................................................................39
5.3.3.3. Configuration Three...........................................................................40
5.3.3.4. Analysis.............................................................................................41
5.3.3.5. Design................................................................................................44
5.3.4. Generating Time Delays...........................................................................46
5.4. Summary..........................................................................................................51
Chapter VI. Experiments............................................................................................53

i
 6.1. Introduction......................................................................................................53
6.2. Prototype Setup................................................................................................53
6.2.1. Components Alignment............................................................................55
Finding Polarizer and Half-Wave Plate Axes.................................................56
TTD Units Alignment.....................................................................................58
6.2.2. Discussions...............................................................................................59
6.3. RF Signal Measurements.................................................................................61
6.3.1. Introduction...............................................................................................61
6.3.2. Methods....................................................................................................62
6.3.3. Results and Discussions............................................................................63
6.3.4. Modifications............................................................................................63
6.4. Time Delay Measurements..............................................................................65
6.4.1. Introduction...............................................................................................65
6.4.2. Methods....................................................................................................66
6.4.3. Results and Discussions............................................................................68
6.5. Summary and Recommendation......................................................................74
Chapter VII. Simulations............................................................................................76
7.1. Introduction......................................................................................................76
7.2. Simulation on Design Values..........................................................................76
7.2.1. Beam Pattern for 0Δτ................................................................................79
7.2.2. Beam Pattern for 1Δτ................................................................................82
7.2.3. Beam Pattern for 2Δτ and 3Δτ..................................................................84
7.3. Simulations on Measured Delays....................................................................85
7.4. Summary and Recommendation......................................................................90
Chapter VIII. Conclusion............................................................................................91
References...................................................................................................................93
Appendix A. Matlab Source Code.......................................................................94
Appendix B. Simulation Results........................................................................101
Appendix C. PCAAD v.2.1................................................................................117
Appendix D. Laser Diode Datasheets................................................................119
Appendix E. List of Components.......................................................................121
Appendix F. Setup Photos.................................................................................122

ii
 Abstract
Phased array antennas have been increasingly gaining interest in
communication systems. The advantage of using phased array antennas is that the
radiation pattern can be controlled electronically. By controlling the radiation
pattern, power transmitted can have high gain and high efficiency at the direction of
interest. The process of controlling the radiation pattern is also known as
beamforming or beam scanning. Beam formation can be easily achieved by inserting
a phase shift or time delays between array elements. The later approach is preferred
since it eliminates beam squint problem. True-time delays methods to do
beamforming also allow phased array antennas to be applicable for wide band
applications.
The purpose of the project was to design and build a true-time delay system
using switched free-space section method to demonstrate beamforming capabilities.
The project implemented 2-bit true-time delay system to scan the beam in four
discrete angles from -45º to +45º. Experiments were carried out to measure the time
delays generated by the units that were built. The measured time delays were then
simulated under Matlab to show the beam scanning capabilities.
Time delay measurements and simulations indicate that the system can scan
the beam in four discrete angles. There were some deviations in the simulated beam
patterns compared to the designed beam patterns. These deviations were mostly
caused by the errors in the time delays generated. Time delays errors were calculated
and they were about 2ps to 11ps (5.7% error).
Small errors in beam angles will be significant as distance increases.
Therefore, high accuracy in beam pattern design is a necessity for long distance
application. This accuracy can be achieved by increasing the accuracy of time delays
generated by the system. To increase time delays accuracy, high precision of optical
devices dimensions and high accuracy in assembling the time delay units would be
required.
Further investigations need to be done on system bandwidth and system
linearity. Measurements of the beamforming capabilities using real antenna and
testing the system at the receiver side will help to investigate the system performance
further.

i
 Acknowledgement
The author would like to thank Prof. Alphones for his guidance and support
throughout the project. His deep knowledge in communication system has helped the
author to overcome many problems encountered during the project. The author is
also indebted to Mr. Joseph Lasante and Dr. Zhao Zhiqiang from Thales Technology
Centre Singapore. Mr. Joseph Lasante has been thoroughly given his guidance in
managing the project and also given his help so that the project can be funded by
Thales. A special thank should also be rewarded to Dr. Zhao who has guided the
author and his partner to complete the project successfully. His training and
supervision have been done in a very intensive way. This has helped the author to
have a deep understanding in the topic and to be able to overcome many difficulties
in the project.

ii
List of Tables
Table 1 System Specification.....................................................................................16
Table 2 Laser Diode Measurement.............................................................................27
Table 3 Required Four Time Delays..........................................................................36
Table 4 Time Delays and Their Respective Beam Angles.........................................37
Table 5 Summary of True Time-delay Configurations Analysis...............................43
Table 6 States of True Time-delay Units....................................................................44
Table 7 Half Wave Plate Light Polarization...............................................................50
Table 8 Summary in Generating Time Delays...........................................................51
Table 9 Power Measurements during Collimator Alignment.....................................55
Table 10 Measurements to Find Polarizer Axes.........................................................56
Table 11 Measurements to Find Half-Wave Plate Axes............................................57
Table 12 Power Measurements with TTD Units........................................................59
Table 13 Spectrum Measurement with Free-space Section Included.........................63
Table 14 Modification on Laser Diode Bias...............................................................64
Table 15 Phase Shift on TTD Units Measurement.....................................................71
Table 16 Measured Time Delay.................................................................................71
Table 17 Beam Angle Measurements.........................................................................72
Table 18 Summary of Beam Angle Deviation...........................................................73
Table 19 Simulated Beam Angle Deviations..............................................................89

iii
List of Figures
Figure 1 Far-field Geometry of 3 Element Array.........................................................6
Figure 2 Planar Array...................................................................................................8
Figure 3 Beam Squint...................................................................................................9
Figure 4 Polarization Beam Splitter...........................................................................12
Figure 5 Delay Element of True Time-delay Network...............................................13
Figure 6 Overall System.............................................................................................15
Figure 7 Maximum Beam Angle................................................................................16
Figure 8 Prototype True Time-delay System..............................................................17
Figure 9 Beam Divergance.........................................................................................21
Figure 10 Thales Optical Link....................................................................................23
Figure 11 Block Diagram of Thales Optical Link......................................................24
Figure 12 Bias Connection for Laser Diode...............................................................25
Figure 13 Laser Diode Characteristics.......................................................................25
Figure 14 Laser Diode Modulation.............................................................................26
Figure 15 RF Spectrum at the Output of SMA Cable................................................29
Figure 16 RF Spectrum when Transmitter Connected Directly to Receiver..............29
Figure 17 First Configuration.....................................................................................38
Figure 18 Dimension for First Configuration.............................................................38
Figure 19 Configuration Two with Dimensions.........................................................39
Figure 20 Third Configuration with Dimensions.......................................................40
Figure 21 True Time-delay Configuration for S0.......................................................45
Figure 22 True Time-delay Configuration for S1.......................................................46
Figure 23 the Working of PBS...................................................................................47
Figure 24 True Time-delay System............................................................................47
Figure 25 Polarization State before Linear Polarizer.................................................48
Figure 26 Output of Linear Polarization. (a) When it is set to pass through y-axis
component. (b) When it is set to pass through x-axis components....................48
Figure 27 Reflected Light in PBS...............................................................................49
Figure 28 Half Wave Plate.........................................................................................50
Figure 29 Prototype True Time-delay System............................................................53
Figure 30 Top View of the Prototype Layout.............................................................54
Figure 31 Side View of the Prototype Layout............................................................54
Figure 32 Linear Polarizer Axis.................................................................................57
Figure 33 Half-wave Plate Axis.................................................................................58
Figure 34 Losses due to PBS......................................................................................61
Figure 35 RF Spectrum with Free-space Section Included........................................65
Figure 36 Phase Shift for 0Δτ.....................................................................................68
Figure 37 Time Delay Measurement Using Network Analyzer.................................69
Figure 38 Phase Shift as TTD S0 Generates Time Delay..........................................70
Figure 39 Phase Shift as TTD S1 Generates Time Delay..........................................70
Figure 40 Phase Shift as Both TTD Generate Time Delays.......................................70
Figure 41 (a) Electric Field of a single element. (b) Array Factor of a two-element
linear array..........................................................................................................78
Figure 42 Radiation Pattern of a Two-element Linear Array.....................................78
Figure 43 Array Factor for 0Δτ in Polar.....................................................................79
Figure 44 Array Factor for 0Δτ with respect to Angle...............................................80

iv
Figure 45 Radiation Pattern for 0Δτ in Polar..............................................................80
Figure 46 Radiation Pattern for 0Δτ with respect to Angle........................................81
Figure 47 Radiation Pattern for 0Δτ (n=8).................................................................82
Figure 48 Array Factor for 1Δτ...................................................................................83
Figure 49 Radiation Pattern for 1Δτ...........................................................................83
Figure 50 Array Factor for 2Δτ...................................................................................84
Figure 51 Array Factor for 3Δτ...................................................................................84
Figure 52 Array Factors for (a) 0Δτ, (b) 1Δτ, (c) 2Δτ, (d) 3Δτ..................................86
Figure 53 Array Factors for (a) 0Δτ, (b) 1Δτ, (c) 2Δτ, (d) 3Δτ w.r.t Angle...............86
Figure 54 Radiation Patterns in Polar for (a) 0Δτ, (b) 1Δτ, (c) 2Δτ, (d) 3Δτ.............88
Figure 55 Radiation Patterns for (a) 0Δτ, (b) 1Δτ, (c) 2Δτ, (d) 3Δτ w.r.t Angle........88

v
Chapter I. Introduction
I.1. Background
Communication systems have become important parts of many engineering
applications. The need for communication services has been growing in capacity and
quality. Examples of applications that require high quality and capacity of
communication services are new generation satellite, radar, and personal
communication services. In these kinds of applications, the communication distance
is long and therefore there is a necessity to design antennas with very directive
characteristics. In other words, the antennas should have a very high gain that can
radiate maximum power at a direction of interest. This can only be accomplished by
increasing the electrical size of the antenna. To do this, the dimension of a single
element antenna can be enlarged. Another approach is to enlarge the dimension of
the antenna by forming an array.
The advantage of using an array is that the beam or the radiation pattern of
the antenna can be controlled. High gain and maximum power can be obtained if the
beam can be directed to the desired direction. This beam forming can be controlled
electronically when array antennas are used. The advantages of controlling the beam
electronically rather than mechanically include speed, reliability and graceful
degradation. Therefore, array antennas are useful for compensating platform
movement, beam shaping, providing graceful degradation, and improving reliability
[1].
The beam can be directed to a specific angle by shifting the phase of the
signals or by inserting delays. Inserting delay (true time-delay) is preferred since it
overcomes the “squint” problem in phase shifting methods [2, 3]. The effect of beam
squinting is even more pronounced if the wide-band characteristic is to be exploited
and phased arrays in more than one frequency band use the same beam forming
network. True time-delay (TTD) methods make phased array antennas to be
applicable for wideband applications since the beam steering allows for a wide
instantaneous bandwidth.

1
I.2. Purpose and Scope
The purpose of this project was to design a true time-delay beam forming
network based on free-space method. Digital true-time delay network was to be
designed and the prototype was then to be built to show the beam forming
capabilities.
This project designed 2-bit free-space time-delay units to show the beam
scanning from -45˚ to +45˚. The beam scanning was limited to one dimension only
for simplicity. Experiments were carried out to measure the time delay produced by
the units. Another constraint in the project was the measurement equipments. Due to
the difficulties to measure the radiation pattern with the complete system, the beam
forming capabilities was verified using computer simulation. However, an antenna
was designed for the field test of the complete system in future works.

2
Chapter II. Theoretical Review
II.1. Previous Works
In the past, true time-delay was generated electronically using different length
of electrical waveguide or cable. However, this approach can be bulky and costly.
Using electrical waveguide also results in higher loss at high frequency and more
susceptible to electro-magnetic interference. Another approach is to use optical
components to generate true time-delay. The interest in using optical processing for
RF phased arrays began about the time when G. A. Koepf proposed the free-space
heterodyne optical beamformer [4]. In optical beam forming systems, excited signals
are converted to the optical band, transmitted via optical fibers and/or free space, and
reconverted back to the microwave band at the antennas.
Different optical methods have been proposed to generate true time-delay.
These proposed methods are either based on switched path delay lines or on variable
dispersive time delays. Many researches have been done on variable dispersive time
delays [1, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9], which is able to provide a continuously variable time delay.
Among the first approaches is the use of fiber with chromatic dispersion property [5,
10]. Soref and Esman (1992), in two different researches, used fibers that have same
length and in which the dispersion property of the fiber is used together with
wavelength-tunable laser-diode source (TLD). In this method the time delay is
proportional to the electrically induced wavelength shift of the laser, Δτ = DLΔλ,
which in turn is proportional to the dc electrical bias applied to the TLD. In the
formula, D is the total chromatic dispersion per nanometer of wavelength shift per
kilometer of fiber; L is the length of fiber.
The disadvantage of using dispersion property proposed by Soref and Esman
is that the required length of fiber is very long. Soref, in his paper [10], mentioned
that the length of the fiber-optic transmission lines is about 1-2 km for the case of
dispersion-shifted fiber. In 1995, Molony [11] suggested an alternative approaches
using fiber Bragg grating. Fiber Bragg TTD element is a single length of fiber with
equally spaced, high reflectivity Bragg gratings, of different centre wavelengths,
distributed along its length. This approach gives discrete time delays where the

3
maximum number of discrete time delays is determined by the tuning range of the
source and by the optical bandwidth of Bragg reflection. His experiment showed
some discrepancy between the experimental results and the theoretical calculation.
These discrepancies are attributed to uncertainties in the precision of the positioning
of the gratings during fabrication of the delay lines.
The most current researches on variable dispersive methods are based on
fiber-optic prism reported by Esman [6, 7]. In this method, the optical carrier is split
onto numerous optical fibers each having the same nominal group delay but with
slightly different net dispersion. It can be easily made by connecting varying
amounts of dispersive and non-dispersive fiber.
The apparent limitation of the dispersion-based beamformers is the dispersion
itself. Dispersion of the modulated optical signal can distort the microwave signal at
higher frequencies [1]. Esman in his paper showed that dispersion limits the
frequency over beamwidth ratio. Another limitation is the complexity of tunable σ-
laser [8]. This type of laser is needed to tune the wavelength of the laser source to
produce the desired time delay. The complexity of the tunable σ-laser should be
reduced before it can find widespread practical applications.
Besides variable dispersion methods, optical approach to produce true time-
delay can be achieved using a switched path delay lines, which is simpler. Switched
path delay lines can be done either on free space or guided optics. The latter case is
usually achieved by switching the optical signal through the appropriate length of
optical fiber [12]. The method realizes variable optical delay by preparing a bank of
optical fibers of the appropriate lengths and choosing the desired one by switching.
However, the main concern of the method is the switching method. If the beam
forming network contains N delay lines, one laser is switched on and N-1 must be
switched off at an instant. To reduce microwave loss, optical switch rather than an
electrical switch was proposed by Jemison [13]. However, the use of different
lengths of optical waveguides might result in a quite long fiber. This can be
overcome by using free-space method.
For free-space method, time delay is generated through the switching of free-
space sections of variable lengths [14]. The microwave signals is converted to optical
signal which is then transmitted through free-space. The optical signal in free-space

4
passes through time delay unit that causes the signal to have longer optical path. The
signal is then converted back to microwave signal using a photodetector. Dolfi
proposed the time delay network consisting of analog phase shifter network and a
digital time delay network. The analog phase shifter is used to control the
polarization of the optical signal which will pass through digital time delay network.
The time delay network produces delays of binary increasing in magnitude (τ, 2 τ,
…, N τ). The time delay unit forwards or reflects the signal based on its polarization.
The reflected signal passes through longer optical path which results in a delayed
signal.
Chazelas [15] showed that time delay as small as 6.4ps (6-18GHz operating
frequency) can be produced using free-space method (5 bits true time delay module).
The prototype used 5 nematic liquid crystal Spatial Light Modulators to control the
polarization of light on each stage of true time-delay units.
In this report, the project is based on free-space methods as described by
Dolfi and Chazelas. Prisms and polarization beam splitters were used to implement
true time-delay unit. Differ from the two researches above, this project did not use
spatial light modulators to control light polarization. It used linear polarizer and half-
wave plate to perform the same task.

II.2. Review of Theory

II.2.1. Beam Scanning of Uniform Array
One advantage of using array antennas is that the beam can be directed to
a specific angle. This capability is usually referred to as beam scanning or beam
forming. From antenna theory it can be proved that the radiation pattern of an
array antenna is the product of the field of a single element, at a selected reference
point, and the array factor of that array. This is referred to as pattern
multiplication for arrays of identical elements [16].

E(total) = [ E(single element at reference point)] x [ array factor]

5
 The array factor is a function of the geometry of the array and the
excitation phase. The characteristics of the array factor can be controlled by
varying the separation between each elements and/or the phase between the
elements. The change in the array factor will result in the change in the total field.
It is easier to vary the phase between the elements rather than varying the
separation distance. Therefore, the beam in the radiation pattern can be controlled
by varying the phase between the elements.
For linear array with N elements, the array factor can be derived by
considering the elements to be point sources. This derivation assumes identical
elements with uniform amplitude and spacing. An array of identical elements all
of identical magnitude and each with a progressive phase is referred to as a
uniform array. The array factor is given by
N
Equation 1
AF  1  e
n 1
j ( n 1)

  kd sin   

N Number of elements
k Wavelength number
d Separation distance between elements
θ Angle as shown in Figure 1
β Progressive phase lead current excitation

y
1 2 3
d

Figure 1 Far-field Geometry of 3 Element Array

The array factor in Equation 1 can be expressed in an alternate, compact
and closed form as shown in Equation 2. This equation assumes that the reference

6
point is the physical centre of the array. The maximum value of Equation 2 is
equal to N. To normalize the array factors so that the maximum value of each is
equal to unity, the equation can be rewritten as shown in Equation 3.
  N  Equation 2
 sin 2   
AF    
 1  
 sin 2   
 
  N  Equation 3
sin   
1   2 
(AF) n   
N  1  
 sin  2   
 

In case of planar array, the pattern of a rectangular array is the product of

array factors in the x- and y-directions. The normalized form is shown in Equation
4.
Equation 4
 M   N 
 1 sin   x   1 sin   y  
  2   2 
AFn (, )    
 M    N 
 y 
sin  x   
sin  
  2    
   2  
Where
 x  kd x sin  cos    x Equation 5
 y  kd y sin  sin    y Equation 6

M Number of elements in x direction

N Number of elements in y direction
θ and φ Angles as shown in Figure 2

7
 Figure 2 Planar Array

The phase of βx and βy are independent of each other and they can be
adjusted so that the main beam of due to x elements is not the same as that of y
elements. However, in most application it is required that the conical main beams
intersect and their maxima be directed toward the same direction. If the main
beam is to be directed along θ = θo and φ = φo, the progressive phase shift between
the elements must be equal to
 x   kd x sin  o cos  o Equation 7
 y   kd y sin  o sin  o Equation 8

The two equations above show that we can find the required phase shifts
between elements if the beam direction is known. If the beam is only directed in
one dimension only, it means that one of the progressive phase shifts will be zero.
For example if the beam is to be scanned in the z-y plane, Equation 7 will result in
zero since there is no phase different between elements in x direction. On the
other hand, Equation 8 will become as shown in Equation 9. This is because as φ
= 90˚, the term sin(φ) becomes one. Note that Equation 9 agrees with Equation 1
for linear array.
 y   kd y sin  o Equation 9

8
II.2.2. Beam Squinting
The previous section has shown that the angle of the beam can be
controlled by shifting the phase between elements. Assuming the beam is scanned
only in one direction; the angle can be derived from Equation 9 and is shown
below.
  y  Equation 10
  sin 1  
 kd 
 y 

In the equation above, k is the wavelength number which is equal to

(2π/λc). If frequency rather than wavelength is substituted (λc = c/fc ), Equation 10
becomes
  y c  Equation 11
  sin 1  
 2d f 
 y c 

Equation 11 shows that changing the frequency results in the change of θ.

This becomes a problem in wide-band signals. In wide-band application, the
signal will be “squinted”. In other words, components of different frequency will
be radiated in different directions. The peak angle of the beam is reduced for
frequencies above the design frequency and increased for frequencies below the
design frequency. This is shown in Figure 3.

Figure 3 Beam Squint

9
 This phenomenon also affects the bandwidth of the system. If the
bandwidth is defined by the frequency limits at which the gain is reduced to half
power, the resulting fractional bandwidth for linear array is given by
f 3    Equation 12
  0.886B b  
f sin  o  L sin  o 
Where
θ3 Beamwidth
Bb Beam broadening factor,
equals to unity for uniformly illuminated array
L Length of array, equals to (N x dy) for N number of elements

Equation 12 shows that the bandwidth becomes smaller as the scan angle
is increased. Therefore, for wide-band application scanning the beam using phase
shifting method results in a poor performance. This problem can be overcome by
using time-delay approaches. By using true time-delay approaches, each
frequency component will be radiated in the same direction. Time delay is defined
as shown below.
 Equation 13

c

If Equation 13 is substituted into Equation 11, it will result in equation

shown below.
  2f c c  Equation 14
  sin 1  
 2d f 
 y c 

Equation 14 can be simplified since the frequency terms in the numerator

and denominator cancel one another. The resulting equation (Equation 15) shows
that if the time delay is set to a fix value, the angle of the beam will not change
even though the frequency changes. This overcomes the problem of beam
squinting in phase-shifting method.
  c  Equation 15
  sin 1  
 d 
 y 

10
 In this equation, angle teta only depends on the time delay and the distance
between elements. Thus, it does not depend on the frequency like the shown when
using phase shifting.

II.2.3. Free-space Method for Time-delay

As has been discussed in the two previous sections, beam scanning can be
achieved by introducing time delay between elements instead of phase-shift.
There are many approaches to generate true time-delay; the one that is described
in this section uses different length of optical path in free-space.
Elementary physics defined velocity as distance divided by time.
Rearranging the terms will result in Equation 16. Where t is time, d is the distance
traveled, and v is the velocity.
d Equation 16
t
v

In case of free-space, the velocity equals to the speed of light divided by

the refractive index of the medium. The above equation can be rewritten as
dn Equation 17
t
c
Where
t Time taken for light to travel
d Distance traveled
n Refractive index of medium. n equals to unity for
c
air. In other medium, n  , where v is the speed
v
of light at that medium.
c Speed of light, equals to 2.998x108 m/s

Since time taken by the light will increase with longer distance, time delay
between two signals can be obtained by making the path of one optical signal
longer than the other one. To do this, one signal needs to be forwarded while the
other one has to change its direction. One solution is to use polarizing beam
splitter (PBS). The working of PBS is shown in the figure below.

11
 Figure 4 Polarization Beam Splitter

The reflected signal can be directed to undergo longer path which results
in a delayed signal. To make sure one signal is forwarded while the other one is
reflected, the polarization of optical signals must be controlled. Therefore, an
optical device that can change the polarization state of a signal is needed. Some
devices fall into this category such as half-wave plate and Spatial Light
Modulators (SLM).
One configuration to generate true time delay is shown in the figure
below. This configuration uses two prisms, two PBSs, and SLM.
t w o r ig h t a n g le p r is m s

a ir
tw o P B S s
SLM

Figure 5 Delay Element of True Time-delay Network

12
 Once the dimension of the delay element is known, Equation 17 can be
used to calculate the time delay generated. In this case, time taken for both paths
must be calculated and time delay is the difference between the times of the two
signals.

II.2.4. Phase Shift in Fiber Optics

One method to study the propagation characteristics of light in an optical
fiber is ray-tracing approach. This method gives a good approximation when the
ratio of the fiber radius to the wavelength is large [20]. For a step-index fiber
structure (the refractive index of the core is uniform throughout and undergoes an
abrupt change at the cladding boundary), the electromagnetic energy at optical
frequencies is made to propagate along the fiber waveguide through internal
reflection at the core-cladding interface.
Light propagating inside fiber optic lines experiences a phase shift. As a
wave travels through the material, it undergoes a phase shift β given by
  n1 kd Equation 18
Where
n1 Refractive index of the core of fiber.
k 2
Free-space propagation constant k 

d Distance the wave has traveled in the material

In addition, when light is internally reflected, a phase change δ (Equation

19) occurs in the reflected wave. The phase change depends on the incident angle
θ1 (θc<θ1<π/2-θc, where θc is the critical angle) according to the relationships

N n 2 cos 2 1  1 Equation 19
tan 
2 n sin 1
p n n 2 cos 2 1  1
tan 
2 sin  1

In the above equations, δN and δp are the phase shift of the electric-field
wave components normal and parallel to the plane of incidence, and n is the ratio
between core’s refractive index and cladding’s refractive index.

13
 Equation 18 and Equation 19 shows that the phase shift inside the fiber
optic depends on the length of the fiber as well as the how the light is reflected
inside the fiber. How the light is reflected inside the fiber is determined by the
angle when light enters the fiber and also the bending of the fiber lines.

14
Chapter III. System Overview
III.1. Introduction
The proposed block diagram of the overall system for two elements array is
shown in Figure 6. The input of the system is RF signal which modulates the laser
source. The optical signal carries the information signal and passes through some
true time-delay units. The optical signal is then converted back to RF signal using
photodetectors. After some amplification, the RF signal is then transmitted through
the array antennas.

C o ll i m a t o r

P h o to
Laser TTD 1 TTD 2 de te c to r
D io d e P h o to
de te c to r

R F s ig n a l

Figure 6 Overall System

The above figure shows the basic building block of the system. It consists of
laser source and photo detector at each ends, true-time delay units, and antenna as the
transmitter. The focus on this project was to design the true-time delay units to scan
the beam of the antenna radiation.
The following sections in this chapter elaborate the overall system. Detail
descriptions on true time-delay units are given in the following chapter while
descriptions on antenna design are presented in [18].

III.2. System Specification

The system was designed to show the ability of antenna beam forming using
free-space switched delay lines method. The specification of the prototype system
depends on many constraints such as budget, time limitation, equipments and

15
components availability. Based on these limitations, the design specification of the
system is shown in Table 1.

Table 1 System Specification

Parameters Value
Maximum angle  45
Time delay units 2-bit (4 beam positions)
Antenna array elements 2x2
RF signal frequency 3.6GHz

The first parameter specifies that the system should be able to scan the beam
from -45 to +45 as shown in Figure 7. Thus, the maximum change in angle that is
produced by the true time-delay unit is 90. Since the true time-delay unit is 2-bit,
there are four beam positions that the system can scan the angle. Ideally the four
positions are to be in -45˚, -15˚, +15˚, and +45˚.

z
45 45

Figure 7 Maximum Beam Angle

The specification for the number of array elements shows that there are four
channels of RF signal that go to antenna. This means that the beam should be able to
be controlled in two dimensions (planar) instead of one dimension only. However,
due to limitation of budget and components, the prototype in this project only
scanned the beam in one dimension, which utilized only two array elements. Choice
of the number of elements is mainly based on simplicity reason.
The centre frequency for the system is specified based on the operating
frequency region of Thales Optical Link. Thales Optical Link comprises of laser
diode, two power amplifier, and photodetector. The specification manual [19] given
by Thales specified that the optical link is to be operated in the range of 1.5 to
3.7GHz. Thus, 3.6GHz was chosen as the operating frequency of the system to be
designed.

III.3. Prototype

16
 Due to limitation in time, budget and equipments, the proposed system shown
in Figure 6 was modified to produce a simplified representative prototype system.
For simplicity, the true time-delay system was narrowed down to two channels only
instead of four. With this, the capability of beam scanning would still be possible to
be demonstrated. Another simplification in the prototype was on the signal paths. In
the proposed system all signals go through free space where they pass through some
true time-delay units. To reduce the optical components complexity, one signal path
was connected directly to antenna using coaxial cable as shown in the Figure below.
This however creates another problem as the cable has delay. Discussion on this
matter is presented in the following section. The prototype system is shown in Figure
8.

Collimator

Laser Photo
TTD 1 TTD 2
Diode detector

RF signal
Coaxial delay line
cable

Figure 8 Prototype True Time-delay System

Figure 8 shows that the RF Signal is split into two paths, one signal
modulates an optical signal and passes through true time-delay units while the other
one goes directly to antenna. With this simplification, the optical components only
need to handle one optical signal instead of two. The prototype signal uses one laser
diode, no power splitter, and one collimator at the transmitting end; at the receiving
end it only uses one photodetector instead of two.

III.4. Analysis and Discussion

III.4.1. Reference Channel Delay

17
 Figure 6 shows the actual proposed system for the project. All designs of
the system are based on the system shown in that Figure. In the specification, it is
stated that the beam scanning angle should go from -45º to +45º. For
simplification, beam scanning of the system would be linear instead of planar.
This would require a minimum of two signal channels. There are two signal
channels in the proposed system: one is the reference channel and the other is the
optical signal channel to be delayed. The reference channel should be passed
through without any delay in the free-space while the other channel is passed
through some true time-delay units.
The specification required the beam to scan from -45º to +45º. In other
words, the system should direct the beam at angle -45º when true time-delay is set
to zero while it should direct the beam at +45º when the time delay is set to
maximum.
Equation 9 in Chapter Two describes the required amount of phase shift
between elements when the beam is to be directed at certain angle. If the number
of elements is limited to two as in the case of the proposed system, Equation 9
specifies the phase lead of the second element (with respect to the reference
element) needed to scan the beam.
For angle = -45º
 y   kd y sin  o

Substituting
θo = -45º
k = 24π
2
=

c 2.998 x10 8 m / s
where     0.083m
f 3.6 x10 9 Hz
dy = 4.15x10-2 m (Refer [17, 18] for detail calculation)

Result in
 y  24  4.15  10 2  sin(45 )
 y  2.2126

The calculation shows that the optical channel needs to be phase shifted by
2.2126 rad (lead) with respect to the reference channel. Another way to see this is

18
that the reference channel should be phase shifted by 2.2126 rad lagging. This
phase shift is equal to time delay of 97.82ps. The calculation is shown below
using Equation 13.
 2.2126rad
o    97.82 ps
 2  3.6  10 9 rad / s
The above value is the required time delay to be inserted into the reference
channel in order to scan the beam at -45º. In this case the other optical signal
channel undergoes zero true time-delay.
Therefore, to have a system that scan the beam start from -45º, the delay of
the reference channel should be fixed to 97.82ps. Thus, the time delay to be
inserted into the other channel will be dependent onto this amount of delay.

III.4.2. Coaxial Delay Line Cable

Figure 8 shows the modified true time-delay system to be demonstrated.
This prototype system should be able to demonstrate the beam scanning
capabilities as specified in Table 1 System Specification. The prototype system
proposed two signal channels where one is the reference channel and the other is
the optical channel to be delayed.
The prototype system suggests that one channel is connected directly to
antenna and the other one would pass through some true time-delay units. This
scheme, however, creates some problem. The problem arises since the coaxial
cable, that is used to connect directly to antenna, has a fixed amount of delay.
Thus, it is necessary to design the system carefully so that it can perform the beam
scanning to meet the specification.
The specification requires the beam to be directed from -45º to +45º.
Taking the coaxial delay line cable as the reference channel, the amount of phase
shift required to scan the beam can be calculated using Equation 9.
For Angle = +45º
The previous section has calculated the value for -45º which is 2.2126 rad.
For +45º, the phase shift required is -2.2126 rad. The negative sign means that the
optical channel should be phase shifted by 2.2126 rad lagging with respect to the
reference channel. The amount of time delay to be inserted has been calculated as

19
well which is 97.82ps. 97.82ps is the required time delay to be inserted to the
optical channel when the reference channel has zero delay. However, reference
channel has non-zero delay. The delay in the reference channel can not be ignored
as in the previous section since the two signal paths are not identical. In other
words, the delay to scan the beam to +45º is no longer 97.82ps but 97.82ps plus
the delay of the reference channel. In the proposed system shown in Figure 6, the
two signals pass through identical paths (fiber and then free-space). In the
prototype system (Figure 8), one signal passes through fiber and free-space
(optical domain) while the other passes through coaxial cable (electrical RF
signal).
For angle = -45º
Section III.4.1 has calculated the required phase shift to scan the beam at
-45º, which is +2.2126 rad. The calculated value shows that the signal of the
optical channel should lead the signal in reference channel by 2.2126rad. This
amount of phase shift equals to 97.82ps as shown in the previous calculation. If
the optical channel has zero delay, the reference channel must be delayed by
97.82ps in order to scan the beam to -45º. However, the optical channel has non-
zero delay and therefore the reference channel must be delayed by
τactual = 97.82ps + delay of optical channel Equation 20
It is important to note that delay of optical channel in Equation 20 is the
delay of the channel when the true time-delay units are set to generate zero delay.
In this case the delay is caused by the fiber line, distance of free-space path for
zero delay, and other delays from the circuits and components.
Thus, it is necessary to measure the delay of the optical channel (when true
time-delay units are set to generate zero delay) in order to design the coaxial cable
of the reference channel. The coaxial cable must be chosen to provide the
required delay time. When the coaxial cable for reference channel has delay that
satisfies Equation 20 and the true time delay units are set to generate zero delay,
the beam should be directed at -45º. The amount of delay in Equation 20
determines the design of true time delay units. In other words, the design of time
delay generated by the units would depend on the delay of the coaxial cable.

III.4.3. Collimator

20
 Prototype system shown in Figure 8 has a collimator to interface between
the fiber optic and the free-space. A collimator is needed in the system since
output light from fiber diverges. Collimator helps to collimate the output light
from fiber to free-space.
There are some devices that can be used to collimate light. Chazelas [15]
in his project used microlens to collimate the output light from fiber. This
microlens, however, is very small and difficult to handle. Another choice is to use
GRIN (Gradient Index) lens as a collimator. This project used GRIN lens in its
prototype. The data sheet specifies that the beam diameter of this GRIN lens is
less than 0.5mm. The beam divergence half angle of the lens is specified to be less
than 0.25º. The beam divergence is shown in the following figure.

0.25°

0.5mm

Figure 9 Beam Divergance

For 500mm distance the beam diameter becomes (2 X 2.18 + 0.5)mm,
which is 4.86mm. The error is about 872%, which is very big. Since the aperture
of the collimator is 2mm, a lot of power will not be detected. This contributes to
losses. The divergence issue limits the dimension of the free-space section of the
true time-delay system. The optical free-space path should not be designed to be
too long. And hence, the maximum delay to be designed is also limited by this
maximum distance.

III.5. Summary
A proposed system is presented in Figure 6 to demonstrate beam scanning
capabilities using switched free-space sections method. The specifications of the
system require the scanning angle from -45º to +45º. The beam scanning of the
system was implemented linearly instead of planar. For linear beam scanning the
system needs at least two signal channels. True time-delay units are inserted in one
of the channels in order to delay the signal.

21
 Analysis on the system shown in Figure 6 suggests that the reference channel
should be inserted a fixed amount of delay to make the system scan the beam start
from -45º. The amount of the time delay is 97.82ps. This fixed amount of delay is
important in the design of the true time-delay units since the delay to be designed
should refer to this reference value.
Due to limitation in time and budget, the prototype of the system (Figure 8) to
be built was simplified. This simplification does not reduce the capability of the
system to demonstrate beam scanning. The simplified prototype is presented in
Figure 8. In this scheme one signal channel is connected directly to the antenna
without modulating an optical signal to change into the optical domain. The
prototype system requires that the coaxial cable has a delay of 97.82ps plus the delay
of the optical channel when it is set to generate zero true time-delay. This is
important to make the system scans the beam from -45º. Another consideration is the
use of collimator to interface between fiber and free-space. Collimator is needed to
collimate the output light from fiber. It is necessary due to the divergence property of
light. Without collimator the light can only travels a short distance before the
divergence effect is too dominant. This limits the maximum distance of free-space
sections the system can have, which also limits the maximum true time delay the
system can generate.
This Chapter has discussed the overall design consideration of the true time-
delay system that was built. The following chapter elaborates the components that
were used for the source and detector in the prototype system. Chapter V. discusses
the design of true time-delay units of the system.

22
Chapter IV. Source and Detector
IV.1. Introduction
This project used Thales Optical Link (Figure 10) for its laser source and
optical detector. This section describes the overview of the optical link provided by
Thales Airborne System.
Thales optical link has one RF input, three bias inputs (+10V, -10V, and
GND), and one RF output. The RF input is to be fed by RF signal that will modulate
the optical carrier. Inside the optical link, there is one photodetector to convert the
optical signal back to RF signal. This RF signal appears at the output of the optical
link. The ±10V bias voltages are converted to provide bias voltage for the power
amplifiers inside both the transmitter and receiver modules and to provide bias
current for the laser diode. Inside this converter, there are three potentiometers to
adjust the output DC voltage and output DC current. The block diagram of this
optical link is shown in Figure 11.

Figure 10 Thales Optical Link

23
 Figure 11 Block Diagram of Thales Optical Link

The block diagram shows that the RF signal modulates the laser which is
connected to fiber optic. The fiber is then connected back to the receiver circuit
which converts back the optical signal to RF signal. The fiber line of the transmitter
and receiver is connected using a converter since the transmitting end is a FC
connector and the receiving end is ST connector.
The optical link was used as the source by disconnecting the fiber connection
and feeding the fiber (from transmitter) to free-space. After the optical signal passes
through time delay units, it goes back to fiber and is received by the optical link
receiver module.

IV.2. Laser Diode

IV.2.1. Connection and Characteristics
The laser diode inside optical link would be used as the laser source to
carry the RF signal that was to be transmitted through free-space. The laser diode
is biased with the circuitry inside the transmitter module. The anode pin is
connected to the ground plane and the cathode is connected to a negative voltage.
The connection to bias the laser diode is shown in the following figure.

24
 -ve voltage
Figure 12 Bias Connection for Laser Diode
The negative supply controls the biasing current of the laser diode. This
bias current at the end determines the output power of the laser. The bias current
is supplied from the DC converter inside Optical Link. This DC converter has a
potentiometer to adjust the amount of current supplied to this negative voltage
pin. It provides a constant current source to the laser diode. The relationship
between bias current and output power is given from the data sheet of the laser
diode and is shown in Figure 13.

Figure 13 Laser Diode Characteristics

25
 The left vertical axis in Figure 13 shows the output power in mW while
the bottom horizontal axis shows the biasing current needed to obtain the desired
output power. Appendix D shows the summary of the laser diode characteristics.
It is stated that the rated output power is 2.50mW and the rated current at 25ºC is
31.2mA. The datasheet also specified that the threshold current at 25ºC is 9.6mA.
This is the current that is needed for the laser diode to turn on.
Another observation made from Figure 13 is that a small increase in
voltage results in a large increase in the current. Therefore, it is not advisable to
bias the laser diode using a constant voltage source. Rather, a constant current
source should be used to bias the laser. The current that pass through the laser
diode must be limited below the rated current specified in the data sheet.

IV.2.2. Biasing of Laser Diode

The laser diode must be biased to deliver some amount of output power.
The choice of the biasing point might depend on some consideration. In this
project the laser diode would be modulated by RF signal. The modulation inside
the transmitter module of Thales Optical Link was done by connecting the
negative bias of the laser diode to the output of power amplifier through a
capacitor as shown in the figure below.

+7V

RF Input

-ve voltage
Figure 14 Laser Diode Modulation
Therefore, a middle bias point was chosen so as to allow maximum swing
laser diode modulation. Figure 13 shows that a bias point can be chosen at the mid
point between 15mA and 30mA. To decide the bias point, power measurement
was done so that a bias point that delivers power at about -3dBm can be chosen.
To do the measurement, the DC converter box was opened up. The bias
current that go through the laser diode was adjusted directly through the

26
 potentiometer. The output fiber from transmitter module was connected directly to
the optical power meter. Then, the Optical Link was connected to ±10V and then
was powered on. The current was adjusted to start at 9mA (threshold current is
9.6mA) and then it was increased in step. The optical power was measured as the
current increased. The measurement results are tabulated in Table 2.

Table 2 Laser Diode Measurement

Bias Current Output Power Bias Current Output Power
(mA) (μW) (mA) (μW)
09 1.05 19 509.1
10 10.3 20 561.2
11 64.5 21 622.4
12 119.1 22 676.4
13 173.2 23 731.1
14 227.0 24 788.5
15 284.4 25 843.1
16 339.7 26 900.0
17 395.1 27 954.5
18 453.8 28 1011.0

Table 2 shows that output power of -3dBm (500μW) was obtained when
the laser diode was biased at approximately 19mA. Therefore, 19mA was chosen
as the bias point of the laser diode in this project. It would deliver output power
approximately -3dBm. This DC bias point also allowes large swing for laser diode
modulation.
Laser diode DC bias = 19mA

IV.3. RF Spectrum Measurement

Thales Optical Link was to be used to change the information into optical
domain and to convert back the optical signal to RF signal. Therefore, the Optical
Link output RF spectrum was measured to determine its performance. The
measurement was done using a spectrum analyzer. The following equipment was
used in the experiment.
- Agilent E4407B ESA-E Series Spectrum Analyzer
- Anritsu 68347C Synthesized Signal Generator

27
 - Two SMA cables
- Two dual DC power supplies

IV.3.1. Methods
Table 1 specifies that the input RF signal was 3.6GHz continuous wave.
This RF signal was provided by Anritsu signal generator. The signal generator
was set to deliver continuous wave with frequency 3.6GHz. The output RF
spectrum was measured using Agilent spectrum analyzer. The reading was taken
from 3GHz up to 4GHz.
Before any measurement was done, losses of the SMA cables were
measured so as to get more accurate reading on the RF measurements. One end of
the SMA cable was connected to the signal generator and the other one directly to
the input of the spectrum analyzer. As the signal generator was turned on,
spectrum analyzer displayed the RF signal spectrum on the screen. The peak value
of the spectrum was recorded. The power spectrum at the output of the cable
should be about the same with the input power injected by signal generator at the
input of the cable.
After SMA cable measurement, the output of signal generator was
connected to the transmitter module and the output of the receiver module was
connected to the spectrum analyzer using SMA cable. The optical link was
connected to ±10V. This voltage was converted by a DC converter inside the
Optical Link to provide +7V bias to power amplifier (in both receiver and
transmitter modules) and 19mA current to laser diode.
Once all had been setup, the optical link was powered on and the signal
generator was turned on to deliver RF signal. Reading was taken on the RF signal
when the transmitter fiber was directly connected to the receiver fiber. Under this
condition, RF spectrum was recorded.

IV.3.2. Results and Discussions

The output spectrum when the signal generator was connected directly to
the input of spectrum analyzer is shown below.

28
 Figure 15 RF Spectrum at the Output of SMA Cable
The figure showed that the peak was -6.351dBm when the input power
pumped in by the signal generator was -3dBm. The result indicates that each SMA
cable seems to introduce some losses during measurements. The loss on each
cable is about -3dBm, which is not negligible.
The next measurement was taken with the transmitter fiber connected
directly to the receiver fiber. The spectrum at the receiver module is displayed in
the figure below.

Figure 16 RF Spectrum when Transmitter Connected Directly to Receiver

The result shows that the peak of RF signal was about -19dBm. There
seems to be a significant loss in the system. It is possible that the losses include

29
the SMA cable loss which is about -6dB and the loss at optical link. The loss of
the optical link was about 10dB. This loss is quite high. The losses inside optical
link can be seen by analyzing the path of the signal.
In this experiment the RF signal modulated the optical signal by
modulating the bias current of the laser diode. It was then transmitted through a
fiber with length about 1.5m before it reached the adaptor. After the adapter the
signal went through a fiber with the same length and then converted back by the
photodiode inside the receiver module. This RF signal was then amplified before
it reached the RF Out pin of the optical link.
There may be losses due to the circuitry of the transmitter and the receiver.
This is mostly caused by the mismatches and the reflection. The other losses may
be caused by the length of fiber. Since the optical signal went through a fiber with
length of 3m. The signal appears to be attenuated slightly along the line. Another
possible source of losses is the connector between the transmitter fiber and the
receiver fiber. Thales Optical Link used ST connector at the receiving side and FC
connector at the transmitting side. These two different connectors requires an
adaptor ST-FC. This connector might also cause losses in the system.
Since the attenuation is quite significant, some amplification might need to
be introduced to amplify the detected signal. This is necessary since the signal
would undergo the free-space section. Losses in the free-space section can cause
more attenuation on the signal.

30
IV.4. Summary
Thales optical link as shown in Figure 10 was used as source and detector of
the true time-delay system. The optical link has a laser diode without temperature
control and one photodetector. The laser diode was biased to give output power at
about -3dBm. Experiments were done to detect the RF spectrum at the output of the
receiver module.
Laser diode data sheet and some power measurement suggest that the laser
diode should be biased at 19mA bias current. This DC bias was needed to obtain
output power at about -3dBm. This bias point also allowed a maximum swing when
the laser diode is modulated.
RF spectrum measurement was then done at the output of the receiver
module. There seem to be losses introduced by SMA cable and by the optical link
itself. The optical link appears to introduce loss of about 10dB. This loss is quite
large and some amplification might be needed, especially when it is to be integrated
with the free-space section.
The results of the experiments show that the performance of the optical link is
quite poor. This can affect the performance of the overall system. However, the
optical link can still be used as source and detector in the system as long as the signal
can be detected. This is because the purpose of the prototype was to only
demonstrate the beam scanning capabilities. To perform beam scanning, the phase
shift or time delay of the signal becomes important.

31
Chapter V. True Time-Delay Units
V.1. Introduction
Beam scanning can be performed either by phase-shifting method or true
time-delay method. The prototype of the system was built to do beam scanning using
true time-delay method. To insert true time-delay into the signal, a switched free-
space sections method was chosen. In this method the optical signal is passed
through longer path in order to create a delay.
The system specification states that the true time-delay is a two-bit time delay
system. With two-bit true time-delay, the system can scan the beam in four discrete
positions. The four beam positions are results from four discrete time delay, which is
0Δτ, 1Δτ, 2Δτ, and 3Δτ.
This chapter elaborates the design of the true time-delay units to generate the
required time delays. Most of the theory has been covered in Chapter II. The
following section starts directly with the design.

V.2. Design Steps

The purpose of the design was to propose true time-delay units that can
generate the required delay. The design comprises of choosing true time-delay units
configuration, designing their dimensions, and designing the methods to generate the
required delay using the units.
The design started by getting the specification of the system (Table 1). The
most important information from the specification was the beam angle coverage.
This information was needed to know the maximum angle the system is able to scan,
which is 90º (from -45º to +45º) in this case. With this information, the maximum
time delay that the system should generate was then calculated.
Other information needed was the angle positions of the beam. Since the
system specification states that the time delay is two-bit system, the beam can scan in
four discrete positions. With this, four time delays needed to scan the beam were
calculated.

32
 After all the values had been obtained, two configurations were chosen for
the two-bit time delay system. Once a configuration was chosen, the dimensions for
the components were then calculated.
When the two units had been designed, a method to generate the required
delay was designed. The constraint in this state was the available components that
could be used in the true time-delay systems.
The design finished with the three steps concluded. A detail layout of the
designed time delay units is presented at the end of this chapter. Experiments to test
the work and performance of the system are described in the following Chapter.

V.3. Design Calculation

V.3.1. Maximum Time Delay
Table 1 states that the system should be able to scan from -45º to +45º. In
other words, the system should be able to insert a delay that will result in 90º
change in the beam direction.
Note that when the system is set to zero true time-delay, the beam should
be directed at -45º. Thus, when the system is set to maximum true time-delay, the
beam should be directed at +45º. The maximum time delay can be calculated
using Equation 9 by substituting +45º as θo. The calculation is shown below.
 y   kd y sin  o

c 2.998  10 8 m / s Equation 21
   0.083m
f 3.6  10 9 Hz
2 2 Equation 22
k   24m 1
 0.083
To obtain a directivity pattern with minimum sidelobes, the distance between
array elements was set to half wavelength [17].
 0.083 2 Equation 23
dy    4.14  10 m
2 2
 y   kd y sin( o )
 y  24  4.15  10  2  sin( 45 o )
 y  2.2126rad
Equation 24
Using Equation 13 to get the time delay

33
  2.2126
    97.82 ps
c 2  3.6GHz
Equation 25
Equation 24 shows that to get +45º the phase of the optical channel should
lag the phase of the reference channel by 2.2126 rad. Converting to time shows
the amount of time delay that should be inserted in the optical channel. Equation
25 suggests that the optical channel should generate a delay of 97.82ps with
respect to the reference channel. This is shown in the diagram below.
Reference channel

2.2126 rad

Delay channel
However, Chapter III shows that the reference channel should be inserted
a fixed amount of delay to make the beam start at -45º. In this case the reference
channel is delayed by 97.82ps or is phase shifted by 2.2126 rad lag. This is shown
in the diagram below.
Delay channel

2.2126 rad

2.2126 rad

Reference channel

Thus, it is obvious that the delay channel should be phase shifted by 2 X

2.2126 rad, which is 4.4252 rad. This amount of phase shift can be converted to
time delay by using Equation 13. The resulting time delay is 195.64ps. The detail
calculation is shown below.
 4.4252rad Equation 26
    195.64 ps
 2  3.6  10 rad / s
9

This is the maximum time delay that the system should be able to
generate. The angle of the beam can be recalculated to verify the result.

Time delay of the reference channel, τo = 97.82ps

34
Maximum time delay of the optical delay channel, τ1 = 195.64ps
Time delay of the delay optical channel with respect to the reference channel is
 d   1   o  195.64 ps  97.82 ps  97.82 ps

This amount of time delay is the same as a phase shift of

    t d  2  3.6  10 9  97.82  10 12  2.2126

Since the delay of the optical delay channel is larger than the reference
channel, the phase shift of the optical delay channel lags the reference channel. If
the reference channel is assumed at zero phase shift, the phase shift of the optical
delay channel is -2.2126. A negative sign is put to show that the phase is lagging.
When the phase shift between elements is known, the beam direction can be
calculated using Equation 10.

  sin 1     2.2126   45

  y 
  sin 1 
 kd   24  4.15  10 
2
 y 
The above calculation verified that the maximum time delay of 195.64ps
would result in the maximum beam scan angle which is +45º. This calculation
result is important since it determines the other time delays that the system should
generate. The calculation for the other time delays is presented in the following
chapter.

V.3.2. Required Time Delays

The previous section has calculated that the maximum time delay is
195.64ps. This time delay can be achieved using several time delay units. Table 1
presents the system specification which requires the system to be two-bit time
delay system. With two-bit time delay system, the beam can be scanned at four
discrete angle locations. These four positions correspond to four time delays; they
are 0Δτ, 1Δτ, 2Δτ, and 3Δτ. Therefore, it is necessary to design two units of time
delay that can generate the four required time delays.
To calculate each time delay that is required, the maximum time delay was
divided by three. This is due to four states of time delays with one of them is 0
second delays.

35
0  0 ps
max  195.64 ps
1    65.21 ps
3 3
2  2  1  130.43 ps
3  3  1  max   195.64 ps

Table 3 Required Four Time Delays

States Time delays
0Δτ 0 ps
1Δτ 65.21 ps
2Δτ 130.43 ps
3Δτ 195.64 ps

Table 3 shows the four required time delays needed to scan the beam into
four discrete angle positions. These four delays are achieved using two units of
time delay. The configurations to generate the time delays are elaborated in the
next section.

V.3.2.1. Analysis
The beam angle that is produced by the four time delays shown in Table 3
must be recalculated. This is due to the non-linear relationship between the time
delay and the angle. The relationship between time delay inserted and the beam
angle is a sine function.
Using Equation 9, the four beam angles was recalculated and is shown in
the following table. In this calculation, all the inserted time delay is subtracted by
the time delay of the reference channel before it is put into Equation 9.

Table 4 Time Delays and Their Respective Beam Angles

Time delay Effective Time delay Angle
0ps 97.82ps -45º
65.21ps 32.61ps -13.6º
130.43ps -32.61ps +13.6º
195.64ps -97.82ps +45º

This calculation shows that the system could not achieve angle -15º and
+15º. In other words, the step angle does not increase linearly. This is caused by

36
the digital switching method that is used by the system. In this system, it is the
time delay that is increasing linearly.
An increase in the number of bit of the time delay system might improve
the precision of the beam angles. This is because the step angle is getting smaller
and there are more discrete beam angles.

V.3.3. Configurations and Dimensions

This section discusses the design of the true time-delay units based on
free-space sections switched method. The design started with the proposed
configuration to generate true time-delay. Analysis was done on the proposed
configuration to choose the appropriate configuration for the project. The design
ended with the calculation of the dimension in order to produce the required
delay.
The idea behind this method is to control the path that the optical signal
passes through. The delay is inserted by making the distance that the signal passes
through longer than the one without delay. To switch the free-space sections, an
optical device is needed to change the direction of the optical signal. In this case
Polarizing Beam Splitter (PBS) performs the required function. The working of
PBS has been described in the Chapter II.

V.3.3.1. Configuration One

Frigyes [2] in his paper showed one configuration to generate time delay
using free-space sections switched method. The proposed configuration is
shown in the figure below.
two right angle
prisms

air
two PBSs
SLM

37
 Figure 17 First Configuration
The above figure shows one possibility to generate time delay. In this
method, PBS was used to reflect the delayed signal or pass through the non-
delayed signal. Whether PBS forwards the signal or it passes the signal depends
on the polarization of the optical signal. Therefore, it is necessary to control the
polarization of the optical signal in order to control the delay units.
In this configuration the delay produced depends on the dimensions of
PBS, prisms, and the space between them. Assuming the same dimension for
PBS and prisms, the time delay is calculated as shown below.

a a

Figure 18 Dimension for First Configuration

Recalling Equation 17, the time taken by the non delayed signal in
second is given below.
2an
to 
c
Where 2a is the distance (horizontal path in Figure 17), n is the
refractive index of the glass, and c is the speed of light. And the time taken by
the delayed signal is
2an  2( d  an)
t1 
c
Where d is the distance between prisms and PBS. In the equation above
the distance is the summation of the horizontal path (first term : 2an) with the
vertical path (second term : 2(d+an) ). The time delay is the difference between
the two equations.
2( d  an) Equation 27
  t1  t o 
c

V.3.3.2. Configuration Two

38
 The second configuration quite different in principle with the first one
and is shown in the Figure below. In this configuration the delay is inserted by
changing the speed of the optical signal. When a glass is inserted, the speed of
light in that medium is decreased and therefore the optical signal is delayed.
d

a a

Figure 19 Configuration Two with Dimensions

The above figure shows that the two signals undergo the same length of
optical paths. The difference is that the delayed signal is passed through a glass
with distance d while the non-delayed signal passes through air. Thus, the
difference between this refractive index of glass and the air refractive index
give the delay value between the two paths per unit length.
Since the lengths of the two paths are equal, the time delay for this
configuration can be calculated by considering only d sections where one is air
and the other one is glass. The time for the non-delayed signal is can be
calculated using Equation 17.
d
to 
c
The time taken by the delayed signal is given by
dn
t1 
c
Where d is the distance, n is the refractive index of glass, and c is the
speed of light. The time delay is therefore the difference between these two
equations.
d  n  1 Equation 28
  t1  t o 
c

V.3.3.3. Configuration Three

39
 The third configuration that is proposed in this project was to combine
the concepts in the first two approaches. The configuration is shown in the
figure below.

a d a

Figure 20 Third Configuration with Dimensions

In this configuration the two signals undergo different lengths and
different refractive index with distance d. To determine the time delay in this
configuration, each optical path needs to be examined carefully. The time taken
by the non-delayed signal is given below.
( 2a  d ) n
to 
c
While the time taken by the delays signal is expressed in the equation below.
2an  2an  d
t1 
c
The first term in the above equation refers to the horizontal path inside
the glass while the second term refers to the vertical path inside the glass. The
last term (d) is put to take into account the free-space section with length d.
Once the two equations are known, the time delay can be calculated as shown in
Equation 29.
2an  2an  d  (2a  d ) n
  t1  t o 
c
2an  2an  d  2an  dn
 
c
2an  d (1  n) Equation 29
 
c

V.3.3.4. Analysis
The three proposed configuration has their own features in generating
the required time delays and in space efficiency. This section tries to analyze
the three configurations in term of the time delay they can provide and the
amount of space they might occupy.

40
 In the analysis, a dimension for prisms and PBS was chosen.
Investigations on popular optic suppliers’ catalogues showed that 10mm
dimension is common for prisms and PBS. The analysis in this section uses
10mm dimension as its reference.
Equation 27 shows that the time delay in the first configuration can be
varied by varying either the optical device dimensions, the refractive index of
the glass, or the space between the prisms and PBS (Figure 18). Since the
optical devices dimensions are fixed to 10mm (a = 10mm) and it is more
difficult to design the refractive index of the glass, the easier way to vary the
time delay is by changing the space between prisms and PBS. The smallest time
delay using this configuration is obtained by setting the space d to zero. Thus,
the minimum time delay is
2 d  an  2an
 
c c
Substituting the values of a, n, and c, results in
a  10mm
n  1 .5
c  2.998  10 8 m / s
2  10  10 3  1.5
   100.07 ps
2.998  10 8
This shows that configuration one can provide delay of 100.07ps or
larger. However, section V.3.2 shows that the minimum delay required is
65.21ps. And thus, this configuration can not be used for this minimum time
delay. The first configuration is appropriate to generate long delays.
The amount of space taken by this configuration depends on the space
between the prisms and PBS. However, the smallest amount of space it takes is
2a multiplied by 2a, which is 4a2. If a is 10mm, then the smallest amount of
space for this configuration is 400mm2.
The time delay generated by the second configuration can be varied by
changing the space d or the refractive index of the glass. The choice falls to
designing the length d. Substituting the value of n = 1.5 into Equation 28 results
in
d  n  1 d 1.5  1
   (1.67  d )ns
c 2.998  10 8

41
Where the unit of d is in meter.
However, the dimension for d normally is a few millimeter only. The
above equation also shows that the time delay is equal to zero when d is zero.
Thus, this configuration can be used for short delays by designing the
dimension of d to be small. Therefore, the second configuration is more
appropriate in generating short and accurate delays.
The amount of space needed for the second configuration depends on
the space d as well. To give some insight, dimension for minimum delay of
65.21ps is calculated below.
  1.67  d  ns
 65.21  10 12
d    39.05mm
1.67  10 9 1.67  10 9
With this dimension, the total amount of space will be
  2 a  d   2a
 
 2  10  10 3  39.05  10 3  2  10  10 3
 1181mm 2

The calculation shows that it would take quite a large space to generate
a delay of 65.21ps. Smaller amount of space is preferred due to mounting and
light dispersion reasons.
The analysis on the last configuration is the same with the other two.
The time delay is designed by choosing the dimension for d instead of changing
the refractive index (Figure 20). Substituting a equals to 10mm and n equals to
1.5 into Equation 29 results in
2an  d (1  n) 2  10  10 3  1.5  d (1  1.5)
    100.07 ps  1667.78 ps  d
c 2.998  108
Where the unit for d is in meter.
The above equation shows that the maximum delay it can generate is
100.07ps (when d = 0). This third configuration is also appropriate for short
time delays. The maximum length of d is 60mm which is the length that would
make the delay equals to zero. Thus, this configuration has an advantage in size
compared to the second one.
To give more insight on the amount of space it is needed, the dimension
to generate a time delay of 65.21ps is calculated.

42
   100.07 ps  1667.78 ps  d
100.07 ps   100.07 ps  65.21 ps
d    20.9mm
1667.78 ps 1667.78 ps

The total amount of space it occupies is

 (2a  d )  a  (2  10mm  20.9mm)  10mm  409mm 2

The above calculation confirms the fact that the last configuration has an
advantage in the amount of space it occupies. It takes only 409mm2 compared
with 1181mm2 when using the second configuration. The table below presents
summary of the analysis for a 10mm dimension of the optical components.

Table 5 Summary of True Time-delay Configurations Analysis

First Configuration
Suitable for long delays
Able to generate delay of
100.07ps or larger
Total dimension larger or
equal to 400mm2
Second Configuration Third Configuration
Suitable for short and Suitable for short delays
accurate delays
Maximum delay depends Able to generate delay
on the length of d smaller or equal to
100.07ps
Total dimension is quite Total dimension is
large (1181mm2 for reasonable (409mm2 for
65.21ps time delay) 65.21ps time delay)

V.3.3.5. Design
The design of true time-delay units was to choose the correct
configurations with their dimensions in order to generate the required delays as
specified in V.3.2. The choice of true time-delay configurations is presented the
previous section.
Section V.3.2 has calculated the required four time delays. These four
time delays can be generated using two true time-delay units. Table 3 is
presented again below.

Table 3. Required Time Delays

States Time delays
0Δτ 0 ps
1Δτ 65.21 ps
2Δτ 130.43 ps
3Δτ 195.64 ps

43
 The true time-delay units behave similar to binary system and thus it has
four states that correspond to four time delays it generates. The binary
representation of the states is given in Table 6.

Table 6 States of True Time-delay Units

States S0 S1 Time delays
0Δτ 0 0 0 ps
1Δτ 1 0 65.21 ps
2Δτ 0 1 130.43 ps
3Δτ 1 1 195.64 ps

The value of zeros and ones in the table shows whether the units are set
to insert a delay or not. For example, true time-delay unit S0 is turned on and
unit S1 is turned off to generate time delay of 65.21ps. The above information
suggests that unit S0 is in charge to generate the minimum delay which is
65.21ps while S1 is in charge to generate time delay of 130.43ps. The
maximum delay is generated by turning on both true time delay units (65.21ps
+ 130.43ps = 195.64ps).

Designing True Time-Delay Unit S0

Table 6 shows that unit S0 has to generate a time delay of 65.21ps. This
amount of delay is too small for configuration one as discussed in V.3.3.4.
Therefore, the choice falls into either the second or the third configuration.
However, the third configuration is preferred since the amount of space it takes
is less than the second configuration. The third configuration was then chosen
for unit S0. The design of unit S0 was based on the following values.
a = 10 mm (Dimension of prisms and PBS)
n = 1.5 (Refractive index of glass)
Equation 29 gives the formula to calculate the time delay for this
configuration. Therefore, the only unknown value in this equation would have
been distance d. The calculation of d is shown below.

44
 2an  d (1  n)
 
c
  c  2an
d 
1 n
65.21 ps  2.998  108 m / s  2  10  10 3 m  1.5
d   20.9mm
1  1.5
Since the value of d has been obtained, all dimension in true time-delay
units are known. Figure 21 shows the configuration for unit S0 with its
dimension.
Free space n=1

10mm

10mm

10mm 20.9mm 10mm

Figure 21 True Time-delay Configuration for S0

Designing True Time-Delay Unit S1

Unit S1 was designed to generate a time delay of 130.43ps. As has been
described in the Analysis section, the first true time-delay unit configuration is
suitable for long delays. Therefore, unit S1 was designed using configuration
one as shown in Figure 17. The design calculation was based on the following
values.
a = 10 mm (Dimension of prisms and PBS)
n = 1.5 (Refractive index of glass)
The value that needed to be calculated was the distance between prisms
and PBS. This value can be obtained using Equation 27 as given below.

45
 2(d  an)
 
c
 c
d   an
2
130.43 ps  2.998  10 8 m / s
d   10  10 3 m  1.5  4.55mm
2
With value of d was known, all the dimensions for this configuration
had been obtained. Figure 22 shows the true time-delay configuration for unit
S1.

10mm

10mm
4.55mm

10mm 10mm

Figure 22 True Time-delay Configuration for S1

V.3.4. Generating Time Delays

Once the true time-delay units have been designed, the system is able to
generate delays. However, the system must have the ability to turn on or off the
delay as shown in Table 6. A delay is set when the optical signal is passed through
the delay path. In order to control the path that the signal should take, PBS and
other optical components to control the polarization are needed.
As shown in the true time-delay configurations, all true time-delay units
have PBS. PBS is transparent or total-reflective according to the polarization. The
working of PBS is described in Figure 4 and is presented back in the figure below.

Figure 23 the Working of PBS

46
 The circles and the small vertical lines represent two different polarization
states that are orthogonal to one another. Therefore, if the polarization state of the
light can be controlled, then PBS can be used to change the direction of the light.
With two-bit true time-delay units, the system must have two components
to control the polarization. Each true time-delay unit must have one polarization
controller before it.
True time-delay True time-delay
Linear Polarizer Half Wave plate
Unit S0 Unit S1

Figure 24 True Time-delay System

The choice of linear polarizer and half wave plate was mainly because
they are common optical devices. Frigyes and Chazelas in their project used
Spatial Light Modulator (SLM) to control the polarization on each stage.
Linear polarizer is used to subject one of the two orthogonal polarizations
to strong absorption. Thus, if the incoming light has a polarization state at angle
45º, then the linear polarizer can be used to choose the x axis or y axis
polarization of the light.
Half wave plate is used to rotate the light polarization. When the half wave
plate is rotated to angle θ, the light polarization will be rotated by 2θ. Therefore,
this component can be used to change the state of polarization of the optical
signal.
The following section describes the polarization changes in each stage of
Figure 24.

Stage Linear Polarizer

The polarization state before the linear polarizer is unknown. Polarization
controller, however, helps the output polarization from the fiber to be more linear.
Nevertheless, the angle of the polarization is unknown. Linear polarizer is used to
control the angle of the polarization state θ.
The polarization state before and after the polarizer is shown in the two
figures below.

47
 y

Figure 25 Polarization State before Linear Polarizer

y y

x x

(a) (b)

Figure 26 Output of Linear Polarization. (a) When it is set to pass through y-

axis component. (b) When it is set to pass through x-axis components.

Figure 25 shows the polarization state that is assumed at certain angle θ.

When the polarizer is set to absorb the x-axis component, the result is shown in
Figure 26(a). Figure 26(b) shows the other case when the polarizer is set to absorb
the y-axis components. Thus, the input light of the next stage can be controlled
either in two polarization states as shown in the above figure.

Stage True Time-delay Unit S0

The incoming light into stage S0 has two possibilities as are shown in
Figure 26. The true time-delay is inserted in this stage. Whether a delay is inserted
or not depends on the polarization of the incoming light that comes into PBS. This
is described more clearly in the figure below.

48
 Figure 27 Reflected Light in PBS
Based on this picture it is obvious that if the polarization is on the y-axis,
then the light will be reflected. On the other hand, the light is forwarded directly
to the output of PBS when the polarization is on the x-axis.
Figure 17 on page 38 shows that the delayed signal is the one that is
reflected by PBS. Therefore, the incoming light to stage S0 should be set to have a
polarization on the y-axis in order to insert a delay. If stage S0 is to be set not to
insert a delay, then the incoming light should be set to have polarization on the x-
axis. This control of light polarization is done on the previous stage.
The output light from stage S0 has the same polarization with its input. In
other words, if the incoming light has polarization on the y-axis, then the outgoing
light from the true time-delay unit will have polarization on the y-axis as well.
Thus, there are two possibilities of light polarization at the output of stage S0
which are the same as the one shown in Figure 26.

Stage Half Wave Plate (λ/2 plate)

The previous part has discussed that the output of stage S0 has two
possibilities of light polarization, which are either in y-axis or in x-axis. This state
of polarization is to be changed in this stage in order to insert the second delay.

49
 The working of half wave plate is shown in the figure below. This picture
shows that when the half wave plate is rotated at angle θ, then the light
polarization will be rotated by 2θ.

Figure 28 Half Wave Plate

All possibilities of outgoing light from half wave plate is presented in the
table below.

Table 7 Half Wave Plate Light Polarization

Incoming Polarization Outgoing Polarization Half Wave Plate
Not rotated
y y

(a) (a)
y
Rotated by 45º

(b)
y y
Not rotated

x x

(b) (b)

Rotated by 45º
y

(a)

Stage True Time-delay Unit S1

50
 Light polarization state from half wave plate determines whether stage unit
S1 should insert delay or not. The principle of this stage is the same as stage unit
S0. When light polarization is on the y-axis then the signal will be delayed. And if
the light polarization is on the x-axis the unit does not insert any delay.
All the stages in generating time delays can be summed up in the
following table.

Table 8 Summary in Generating Time Delays

Delay S0 S1 Polarizer rotation λ/2 plate
from vertical axis
0Δτ 0 0 90º (x-axis) Not rotated
1Δτ 1 0 0º (y-axis) Rotated 45º
2Δτ 0 1 90º (x-axis) Not rotated
3Δτ 1 1 0º (y-axis) Rotated 45º

V.4. Summary
This chapter elaborates the design of true time-delay units and their
mechanism to generate delays. A two-bit true time-delay system has been designed
to demonstrate beam scanning capability that is able to scan the beam from -45º to
+45º.
The design started by examining the required specification. Maximum time
delays and the four required delays to be generated were calculated. Based on this
specification, three true time-delay units were proposed. Analyses on the three
configurations were done and two out of three proposed configurations were chosen
to be used in the system. The choice of the configuration was based on their ability to
generate the required time delays and the amount of space they takes.
The next step was to calculate the dimensions of the two configurations so
that a correct time delay may be produced. Once the dimensions had been calculated,
the design of the units was done. However, a mechanism to produce time delays
using these units should be designed. Table 8 summarizes the mechanism to generate
time delays using linear polarizer and half wave plate.
In summary, a two-bit true time-delay system has been designed to generate
the required time delays. This true time-delay system is to be integrated with the

51
other components such as source and detector in order to build a complete system for
beam scanning demonstration.

52
Chapter VI. Experiments
VI.1. Introduction
Previous chapter has presented the design true time delay system. Last
chapter showed that the designed true-time delay units should give the appropriate
time delay as shown in Table 3. When the prototype was built, it faced some
problems such as the availability of the components, losses in the electrical and
photonic components, electrical coupling, etc. Therefore, experiments were set up to
measure the time delay that was produced by the system that had been designed.
This chapter elaborates the setup of the prototype and the experiments to
measure the time delay it can generate. The first section will discuss the setup of the
prototype and any modification made. The second part will present the experimental
setup together with its collected measurement on the time delay that was generated.

VI.2. Prototype Setup

The prototype that was to be built has been discussed in Section III.3. The
system is shown again in the figure below. The components list for this system is
given in Appendix E.
Collimator

Laser Photo
TTD 1 TTD 2
Diode detector

RF signal
Coaxial delay line
cable

Figure 29 Prototype True Time-delay System

The first step in setting up the prototype was to design the layout of
component on the optical platform. This prototype was setup on 60cm x 60cm
Newport optical platform. The optical components that are shown in Figure 29 were
to be mounted on 3 inch posts. The collimator was to be mounted on a compact
kinematics mount. This helped the collimator to be adjusted for alignment. True

53
time-delay units were to be mounted on 50mm x 50mm kinematics platform mount.
The linear polarizer and half-wave plate had their own mount that can be rotated. The
fiber line from the transmitter was fed into a polarization controller before it went
into free-space. The layout of the prototype is shown in the two figures below.

O p tic a l T r u e T im e D e la y S y s te m : T o p V ie w
T T D s tr u c tu r e 1 T T D s tr u c tu re 2

H a lf w a v e
C o llim a to r p o la r iz e r P la te
C o llim a to r

5 m m 50m m

21m m 20m m

50 m m 50 m m

la s e r
F C -F C tr a n s m itte r
c o n n e c to r p o la r iz a tio n N e tw o r k
c o n tr o lle r A n a ly z e r
p h o to d e te c to r

F C -F C
c o n n e c to r

Figure 30 Top View of the Prototype Layout

Collimator TTD Unit S0 TTD Unit S1

Walf-wave
Polarizer Collimator Connector
plate

50mm 50mm

Connector

Laser diode Photodetector

Polarization
controller

25.4mm 25.4mm 25.4mm 25.4mm 25.4mm

Figure 31 Side View of the Prototype Layout

54
VI.2.1. Components Alignment
Once the layout is done, the components needed to be aligned before it
could function. The first alignment was done from the transmitting collimator to
the receiving collimator. To do this alignment, all other optical components
between the two collimators were taken out. The optical link was connected to
±10V. These voltages were then converted to deliver +7V voltage to the power
amp and 19mA current to bias the laser diode. Before the alignment was done, the
output power of the transmitter was measured. To do this, the fiber output from
the transmitter was connected to an optical power meter. The reading showed that
the power was -2.97dBm. This output power can be adjusted by adjusting the bias
current of the laser diode. To deliver output power of about -3dB, a bias current of
19mA was needed. The amount of bias current needed can be checked in the laser
diode’s datasheet.
After the reading was done, the fiber output from the transmitter was
connected back to the fiber from the transmitting collimator. The power meter
was connected to the fiber of the receiving collimator. The two collimators were
aligned so as to get a maximum power reading. Once the reading was a maximum
value, the polarization controller was adjusted to get the maximum power. The
maximum power reading measured was -10.83dBm.
After the two collimators were aligned, the two true time-delay units were
assembled and mounted on top of the 50mm x 50mm kinematics platform mount.
The mounts were than put into the 3inch posts. The two units were also aligned by
measuring the power detected on receiving collimator.

Table 9 Power Measurements during Collimator Alignment

Measurements Power (dBm) Power (μW)
Output power from transmitter -2.97 504.1
Power detected from collimator to -10.83 82.60
collimator (no components between)

Finding Polarizer and Half-Wave Plate Axes

55
 Linear polarizer and half-wave plate was used in the process of TTD units
alignment. Before these two components could be used, they were tested so as to
know the axes of the components. This was necessary since there could be error
when the polarizer and half-wave plate were mounted onto the rotation mounts.
To get the axis of the polarizer, two PBSs were used in the measurement.
Linear polarizer was on the post after the transmitting collimator. After the
polarizer, a 50x50mm kinematics mount was put on. The two PBSs were put on
top of it so as the horizontal light polarization would pass through and the vertical
light polarization would be reflected. After these components were placed, the
polarizer was set at 0º on its rotation mount. The laser diode was turned on and
optical power was detected at the other end. The rotation mount of polarizer was
then rotated in step of 10º from 0º to 180º. Power measurements for each angle
were recorded and are tabulated in Table 10.

Table 10 Measurements to Find Polarizer Axes

Rotation Power Detected Rotation Power Detected
Mount Angle (dBm) Mount Angle (dBm)
0º -39.47 100º -21.02
10º -46.22 110º -20.64
20º -67.71 120º -21.09
30º -48.26 130º -21.88
40º -39.20 140º -23.01
50º -32.73 150º -25.47
60º -28.40 160º -27.49
70º -25.52 170º -32.67
80º -23.17 180º -38.11
90º -21.73

Table 10 shows that the maximum power detected was when the rotation
mount rotated to angle 110° and the minimum was when it was at 20°. Further
tuning on the rotation mount showed that 108° had the maximum power detected
while 18° had the minimum power detected. This result suggests that light
polarization is vertical at 18° angle on the rotation mount. On the other hand, the
light polarization at 108° is horizontal. This result is reasonable since the PBS
only passes through horizontal light polarization. That is why the maximum
power detected was at 108° and the minimum was at 90° different, which was
18°. With this, the polarizer can be used to pass through certain angle of light

56
polarization by rotating the rotation mount from 18° up to 198°. The dotted line in
Figure 32 shows the axis where light polarization can pass through; the axis is at
angle 18º on the rotation mount.
18°

Figure 32 Linear Polarizer Axis

To find out the axes of half-wave plate, a similar procedure was adopted.
The half-wave plate was placed after the first stage of two PBSs. Linear polarizer
was rotated to angle 108° so as the outgoing light had horizontal polarization.
With this polarization state, all light would be passed through on the first stage of
the two PBSs. The incoming light to the wave-plate would have horizontal
polarization. Another two PBSs were then placed onto the kinematic mounts and
was positioned after half-wave plate. Power was detected from the receiving
collimator and the wave-plate was rotated. The power was measured as the wave-
plate’s rotation mount was rotated from 0° to 180°. The maximum and minimum
power detected was recorded and are shown in Table 11.

Table 11 Measurements to Find Half-Wave Plate Axes

Half-Wave Plate Rotation Mount Angle Power Detected
11° -30.8dBm
56° -59.1dBm

The result showed that the minimum power detected was at angle 56° of
the rotation mount and the maximum was at 11°. The result suggests that if the
rotation mount is at 11°, half-wave plate does not change the polarization state.
The maximum power was detected at 11° since the wave plate does not change
the horizontal light polarization from the previous stage. The minimum power
detected was due to all light was reflected by PBS. This is due to the wave plate
was rotated by 45° (11° + 45°). This would cause the light polarization changed
by 90°. Since the polarization was vertical, light was reflected. The measurements

57
indicate that the 0º axis is at 11º angle on the rotation mount as is shown in Figure
33.
11°

Figure 33 Half-wave Plate Axis

TTD Units Alignment

To align and mount the TTD units, the following methods were done. TTD
unit S0 was set up first. The two PBSs were placed on the kinematics mount and
then the linear polarizer was put before unit S0. The polarizer was set to block the
vertical polarization. In other words, only the horizontal polarization could pass
through. To do this, the polarizer was set at 108º or light polarization on
horizontal axis. In this polarization state, all light would be forwarded through as
it reached PBS. The two PBS were aligned so as to get a maximum power reading
at the detector. Once the PBSs were aligned, the polarizer was set to block the
horizontal polarization (polarizer was set at 18º). In this case, light would undergo
the reflected path in the TTD unit. The two prisms were then aligned to get the
maximum power reading.
To align and mount the second TTD unit, the half-wave plate was put
before TTD unit S1. Linear polarizer (before state S0) was set to block vertical
polarization so as light will not be reflected as it went through PBSs. Wave plate
was then set at 11º so as not to rotate the incoming polarization. With these
configurations of polarizer and wave plate, the incoming light to PBS unit S1 will
have horizontal polarization. With this condition, the two PBSs were aligned.
Once it was aligned, the half-wave plate was set at 56º (or 45º angle) so as to
rotate the incoming polarization by 90º. With this condition, all incoming light
would be reflected by PBS. With this setup, the two prisms were then aligned.

58
 After the setup was done, power readings were taken for four possible
cases as shown in Table 8. The first reading was taken with the linear polarizer set
to 108º and half-wave plate set to 11º. In this case, all light was passed through
PBS. In other words, this was the setup for no delay. After the reading was taken,
the polarizer was changed to 18º. This is the case for generating delay in the two
units. Next, the half-wave plate was rotated to 56º. With this configuration, the
light would be delayed in the first unit only. The next measurement was taken
with linear polarizer at 108º and the half-wave plate was still at 56º. The
measurement results are shown in the table below.

Table 12 Power Measurements with TTD Units

Polarizer Half-wave Plate Power (dBm) Delay
108º 11º -30.33 0Δτ
18º 11º -20.99 1Δτ
18º 56º -25.09 2Δτ
108º 56º -37.70 3Δτ

VI.2.2. Discussions
Measurement of the system showed that the output power from the
transmitter was about -3dBm. This output power was set by adjusting the bias
current of the laser diode. This power was then transmitted through free-space
with length about 127mm. The detected power at the end of free-space section
was -10.83dBm. It showed that the loss of the free-space section was about 8dB.
However, due to small aperture of receiving collimator, there may be loss due to
misalignment and loss due to inability of the receiving collimator to capture wider
incident light (caused by dispersion property of light). These losses are included
in that 8dB loss.
For length of 127mm, the beam diameter at the end of the free-space
section, excluding any components in between, is (2 x 0.55 + 0.5)mm, which is
about 1.61mm. This beam diameter is still smaller than the aperture of the
receiving collimator. However, when light is reflected (by prisms or PBS) and the
reflection surface has some elevation, the beam diameter seems to be even
broader. When the beam diameter is bigger than the diameter of the receiving
collimator, some power is not detected. This contributes to some losses.

59
 When TTD units, polarizer, and half-wave plate were placed between the
two collimators, more losses occurred in the system. Each component seems to
contribute to losses. Moreover, every stage is likely contributes to light deflection.
This may cause the system to be adjusted again after every alignment of each
stage.
Losses from TTD units can be explained by considering the reflections at
every interface between air and glass. Another possible cause of loss seems to be
the polarization beam splitter (Figure 27 Reflected Light in PBS).
The equation to calculate light reflection between glass and air is shown in
Equation 30. Where n is the refractive index of the glass, Pr is the reflected power,
and Pin is the incident power.
Pr  n 1
2
Equation 30
R  
Pin  n  1 
If 1.5 is used as the refractive index of the glass, the reflection can be
calculated as shown below.
2 2
 1.5  1   0.5 
R     0.04
 1. 5  1   2.5 

The result suggests that 4% of the incident power is reflected as the light
passes through the interfaces between glass and air. Note, however, that the
refractive index of the actual components might not be exactly 1.5.
The other possible cause of losses may be due to polarization beam
splitter. Figure 27 shows that when the light is reflected by PBS, practically there
is some amount of light that is not reflected. The percentage is less than 2%. The
possible losses due to PBS are shown in the dotted line in the figure below.

Figure 34 Losses due to PBS

Figure 34 shows that ideally the losses due to PBS might occur only in
two paths (two vertical dotted lines). The dotted line in horizontal path shows the
leakage that is in the same path with the delayed signal. This leakage light,

60
 however, will be reflected again when it meets the second PBS. Therefore, the
total loss due to imperfection in PBS is about 4%.
Another point to note is about polarization controller. Polarization
controller that was placed before the transmitting collimator affected the output
power transmitted. The polarization controller needed to be adjusted again so as
the outgoing light from linear polarizer was high enough for both states (vertical
and horizontal polarization.
The detected power at the receiving collimator varied from -20dBm to
-37dBm. This power was very weak. More losses would reduce this detected
power as it is transmitted to the photodiode and receiver module. In order to
detect the RF signal, some amplification might be needed. A semiconductor
optical amplifier can be used to amplify the optical signal from the receiving
collimator to the photodiode.

VI.3. RF Signal Measurements

VI.3.1. Introduction
Once the prototype was ready, measurement to detect the RF signal was
done. The purpose was to detect back the transmitted RF signal at 3.6GHz. The
RF signal was used to modulate the optical signal from laser source. This optical
signal was then transmitted through free-space. This optical signal was then
converted back to RF signal using a photodiode. Measurement was done to check
the spectrum of the received RF signal. To do this measurement, the following
components were used.
- Agilent E4407B ESA-E Series Spectrum Analyzer
- Anritsu 68347C Synthesized Signal Generator
- Two SMA cables
- Two dual DC power supplies

VI.3.2. Methods

61
 The input RF signal was 3.6GHz continuous wave. This RF signal was
provided by Anritsu signal generator. The signal generator was set to deliver
continuous wave with frequency 3.6GHz. The output power level was then set at
-3dBm. RF spectrum measurement was done using Agilent spectrum analyzer.
The spectrum analyzer was set to capture signal from frequency 3GHz up to
4GHz.
The output of signal generator was connected to the transmitter module
and the output of the receiver module was connected to the spectrum analyzer
using SMA cable. The optical link was connected to ±10V. This voltage was
converted by a DC converter inside the Optical Link to provide +7V bias to power
amplifier (in both receiver and transmitter modules) and 19mA current to laser
diode.
The linear polarizer and wave plate was set to allow forward transmission
of light. To do this, the polarizer was set at 108º and the wave plate was set at 11º.
With this setup, light would not be reflected by PBS.
Once all had been setup, the optical link was powered on and the signal
generator was turned on to deliver RF signal. The readings were taken with free-
space section included. The transmitter fiber was connected to the transmitting
collimator. The RF signal would undergo free-space section and then back to fiber
before it was detected by the photodiode. The RF output RF spectrum from the
receiver module was measured. After this reading was taken, the free-space
section was blocked so as not to allow any light coming to the receiving
collimator. Reading was taken again from the spectrum analyzer under this
condition.

VI.3.3. Results and Discussions

Measurements on the losses of SMA cable and optical was done on
Chapter IV.. The experiment results discussed in this chapter included TTD and
free-space section. When the free-space section was not blocked, a continuous
wave signal spectrum appeared in the analyzer. The reading showed that the peak
of the signal spectrum was about -37dBm. However, when the free-space section
was blocked, the spectrum in the analyzer was still the same.

62
 Table 13 Spectrum Measurement with Free-space Section Included
Condition Peak Value (dBm)
Light forwarded in the free-space -37
Light was blocked -37

A possible explanation for this result can be the coupling signal from the
transmitter to the receiver modules. The circuit inside Thales Optical Link used
the same DC converter to power up the receiver module and the transmitter
module. Both DC supplies to the transmitter and receiver shared the same ground
point. This can be the cause of the coupling signal.

VI.3.4. Modifications
To overcome this problem, some modifications were made on Thales
Optical Link. The transmitter was separated and put on some distance from the
receiver. The DC supply for the transmitter was connected directly a separate DC
power supply. This would help to isolate the coupling through the ground wires.
The wires to bias the transmitter module from the power supply were also
shielded. This can help to reduce the coupling through radiation.
The bias to the transmitter module consists of +7V to bias the power
amplifier and 19mA to bias the laser diode. In the Optical Link, the bias for the
laser diode was done by controlling the current. Since then the transmitter was
connected to DC power supply which supplies constant voltage, a resistor was
added in the laser diode bias path. A resistor of 390Ω was connected between a
negative power supply and the bias of the laser diode to limit the current from the
constant voltage source.
As the modification was made, the negative power supply for the laser
diode was set to deliver current of 18mA. With this set of bias, power
measurement was taken again to get the output power from the transmitter fiber.
The transmitter fiber was connected to the optical power meter and the optical
power was measured when 18mA current was delivered to the laser diode. With
this bias configuration the output power was -2.416dBm (573.67μW).

Table 14 Modification on Laser Diode Bias

63
Bias current Optical Output Power (dBm) Optical Output Power (μW)
18mA -2.416 573.67

With this set of modifications, the last two measurements were repeated.
The fiber from transmitter was connected to the transmitting collimator and the
RF spectrum was measured from the receiver module. The peak of the spectrum
signal was about -51dBm. This output signal was very weak and very near to the
noise floor.
To be able to detect the signal, some amplification was needed. A
semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA) was used to provide this amplification.
SOA was introduced in the system and connected between the output of receiving
collimator and the input fiber of the receiving module. Opto-Link SOA (SOA-
1310-A) was used in this project.
Opto-Link SOA has one optical input and one optical output with a knob
to adjust the amplification gain. The output from the receiving collimator was
connected to the optical input of the SOA and the receiver module fiber was
connected to the output of the SOA. Additional fiber of 2m was used to connect
the output of SOA to the input of the receiver fiber. This may cause the reference
delay in the optical channel increase and a required delay for the coaxial delay
cable may need to be recalculated.
The same measurement was repeated again with SOA included in the
system. Before the measurement started, amplification gain of SOA was set to its
minimum value. The system was then powered on the reading was taken from the
receiver module. Amplification gain of SOA was increased slowly to its
maximum allowable value. The output spectrum detected at the receiver module
with a maximum amplification from SOA is shown in Figure 35.

64
 Figure 35 RF Spectrum with Free-space Section Included

The result showed that the peak RF spectrum was -31.61dBm. This output
was higher compared to the previous configuration (-51dBm). When the light path
was blocked, spectrum analyzer showed no signal. This indicates that the coupling
had been eliminated from the system and the detected signal of about -32dBm was
the signal from the receiver module alone. Even though the signal was not high,
yet it was adequate to measure true-time delay in the system.

VI.4. Time Delay Measurements

VI.4.1. Introduction
The purpose of this measurement was to verify the time delays generated
by the system. To do this, four measurements that represented the four states of
time delay were taken. A network analyzer was used in these measurements.
Network Analyzer is capable to measure the phase shift or time delay from input
port to output port. Below is the list of components and equipments that were used
in the experiment.
- HP 8753C Network Analyzer with HP 85047A S-parameter Test Set
- Calibration kit HP85033D 3.5mm
- Two Dual output DC power supplies

65
 - Two SMA cables

VI.4.2. Methods
Before the network analyzer could be used for measurements, it needed to
be calibrated. The calibration was done using 3.5mm calibration tool kit provided
by Hewlett-Packard. The analyzer was calibrated using Full 2-Port calibration. It
consists of three calibrations, namely reflection coefficient, transmission
coefficient, and isolation. Reflection coefficient was calibrated for short, open,
and 50Ω load termination. It was done for port one and port two of the analyzer.
Transmission coefficient was calculated by the analyzer with the two port
connected using a thru connection. The last calibration, which is isolation, was
omitted. The calibration was done for frequency range of 3.5GHz to 3.7GHz.
After the analyzer had been calibrated, port one was connected to the transmitter
module using a SMA cable and port two was connected to the output from
receiver module.
Since the experiment was to measure the time delay introduced by the
TTD units, the fiber output from transmitter module was connected to the
transmitting collimator. In this case, the signal would be transmitted through free-
space where it would be processed by TTD units.
The receiver module was powered up using ±10V which was then
converted to +7V to bias the power amplifier. The transmitter module after
modification was connected directly to a separate dual output power supply. One
output was to provide +7V for transmitter module power amplifier and the other
output was to provide 18mA current to bias the laser diode. A resistor of 390Ω
was used to limit the current from the power supply as has been discussed in the
previous section.
In this measurement, SOA was used to amplify the detected signal at the
receiving collimator. The input of SOA was connected to the output of receiving
collimator and the output of SOA was connected to the input of receiver fiber
using another 2m single mode fiber. The SOA was powered on with the
amplification gain set to minimum value.

66
 The first reading was to measure the delay or phase shift introduced by the
system when the TTD units did not generate any delay. To measure this, linear
polarizer was set to 108º angle in the rotation mount to allow horizontal light
polarization to pass through. The half-wave plate was set to 11º angle in its
rotation mount so that it would not rotate the polarization of the incoming light.
Under this configuration, the light would not be reflected by PBS and it would be
forwarded through until the end of free-space section.
After everything was ready, network analyzer was set measure the S21
parameter of the device under test. The format measurement was Logarithmic
Magnitude. With this display on the network analyzer screen, SOA gain was
increased steadily until its maximum value or the network analyzer able to detect
the signal. Polarization controller can be adjusted to increase the signal power
detected.
Once the signal detected had reached its maximum value the analyzer
could detect, the format measurement was changed to Phase. The output display
of the analyzer was printed and recorded. Note, however, the value was a phase
shift from input port to output port expressed in degree. The time delay was
recorded by changing the format measurement to Delay. However, when
measuring under this format, an exact time delay could not be accurately obtained.
Therefore, all readings were taken from Phase format or phase shift which then
converted back to time delay.
The next measurement was to get the phase shift introduced by the first
TTD units. The linear polarizer was then set to 18º angle in rotation mount to
allow vertical polarization to pass through and the half-wave plate was set to 56º
angle to change the polarization back to horizontal. Under this setup, the light
would only be reflected in the first TTD unit. Same measurement method was
done to get the delay from input port to output port.
The third measurement was to get the delay generated by the second TTD
unit. Before the reading was taken, linear polarizer was set back to 108º angle and
the half-wave plate was set to 56º. Thus, the light would only be reflected in the
second TTD units. The delay was then measured using the same approach as
before.

67
 The last measurement was to get the delay generated by both TTD units.
In order to do this, light was to be reflected in both stages. Therefore, linear
polarizer was set to 18º angle and the half-wave plate was set to 11º. Thus, delay
from input to output could be measured using the same approach.
The readings from the last three measurements did not represent the true-
time delay introduced by the TTD units. Rather, it showed the delay from the
input port to the output port. Therefore, the phase delay readings must be
subtracted with the first reading to obtain 1Δτ, 2Δτ, and 3Δτ.

VI.4.3. Results and Discussions

The phase shift from input to output when light was not delayed is
displayed in the following figure.

Figure 36 Phase Shift for 0Δτ

The phase shift from input to output when TTD units did not introduce any
delay was 30.499º or +0.5323 rad. However, since the phase is leading, the actual
phase shift is (0.5323rad - 2π) rad, which is -5.7509rad. This was the amount of
phase shift introduced by the optical and electrical system which includes

68
transmitter module, fiber lines, free-space section, and finally receiver module.
This phase shift can be converted to time delay using Equation 13.
 5.7509
    254.24 ps
 c 2  3.6GHz

This amount of delay is important to determine the delay of coaxial delay

line cable. As has been mentioned in Equation 20, the delay of coaxial cable has
to be 97.82ps plus the delay of this channel.
τactual = 97.82ps + 254.24ps = 352.06ps
This amount of time delay is a phase shift of -1.6803rad. This means the
coaxial delay must introduce a phase shift of -1.6803rad in order the beam can
start at -45º.
Another conclusion is about the difference between phase shift and time
delays to scan the beam. Figure 36 shows that the phase shift is very sensitive
with the frequency. As the frequency changes, the phase shift also changes
significantly. Therefore, if the beam scanning is done by shifting the phase, the
beam angles would be affected as the frequency changes or as the signal
transmitted is a wide band. Whereas if true-time delay is inserted, the time delays
between elements are quite constant for a range of frequency span. This can be
seen from Figure 37. This figure shows the time delay measurement using
network analyzer for state 0Δτ. It can be seen that the time delay constitutes
almost a straight line.

Figure 37 Time Delay Measurement Using Network Analyzer

The results for other phase shift measurements are shown in the three
figures below.

69
Figure 38 Phase Shift as TTD S0 Generates Time Figure 39 Phase Shift as TTD S1 Generates Time
Delay Delay

Figure 40 Phase Shift as Both TTD Generate Time Delays

Measurements results showed that the phase shifts introduced for the last
three measurements were -56.96º, -147.65º, and 122.39º. From these values, a
phase shift in radian can be calculated. These phase shift in radian are shown in
Table 15.

Table 15 Phase Shift on TTD Units Measurement

Unit Delay Phase Shift Phase shift
No delay +30.499º +0.5323rad
TTD S0 -56.96º -0.9941rad
TTD S1 -147.65º -2.5770rad

70
 TTD S0 and S1 +122.39º +2.1361rad

These values, however, are not the phase shift introduced by TTD units.
These values simply represent the phase shift introduced from the input port to the
output port. Therefore, to obtain the true-time delay generated by TTD units, these
values must be subtracted with the phase shift for 0Δτ. This concept is explained
in the following diagram.
Phase shift when no delay

0.5323rad

-0.9941rad
1.5264rad

Phase shift when TTD S0

generate delay
The diagram shows that the phase different when the system introduced no
delay and when TTD S0 introduced delay was 1.5264rad. This value is the phase
delay with 0.5323rad as its reference, or in other words it is obtained from
0.5323rad subtracted by -0.9941rad. This value when converted back to time
delay (Equation 13) is about 67.48ps. This measured time delay is about the same
with the designed time delay specified in Table 6. The following table lists the
difference between time delay measurements and the designed value.

Table 16 Measured Time Delay

Measured Phase Shift Phase Measured Designed Error
Phase Shift State 0Δτ Difference Time Delay Time Delay
-0.9941rad +0.5323rad 1.5264rad 67.48ps 65.21ps 2.27ps
-2.5770rad +0.5323rad 3.1093rad 137.46ps 130.43ps 7.03ps
+2.1361rad +0.5323rad 4.6794rad 206.87ps 195.64ps 11.23ps

Table 16 also shows the errors in the actual time delay generated
compared to the designed values. The errors were about 2ps to 11ps. These errors
may result in more deviation on beam angles. The actual beam angles generated
can be calculated with assumption that the coaxial delay line is able to provide a
phase shift of -1.6803rad (Refer to previous discussion). With this assumption, the
phase difference can be calculated as shown in the diagram below.

71
 Phase shift when no delay

0.5323rad

-0.9941rad

-1.6803rad

0.6862rad
Phase shift when TTD S0
Reference channel generate delay
phase shift
The diagram shows that the phase difference between reference channel
and with the one when TTD S0 generate delay was 0.6862. This value was then
substituted to Equation 10 to obtain the beam angle.
  y 
  sin 1    sin 1   0.6862rad   12.7 
 kd   24  4.15  10 
2
 y 
The calculation shows that the deviation of the beam angle from the
designed value was about 1º. The other beam angles were calculated in the same
way as above. The results are shown in the following table.

Table 17 Beam Angle Measurements

Measured Reference Phase Beam Designed |Error|
Phase Shift Phase Shift Difference Angle Beam Angle
-0.9941rad -1.6803rad +0.6862rad -12.7º -13.6º 0.9º
-2.5770rad -1.6803rad -0.8967rad +16.7º +13.6º 3.1º
+2.1361rad -1.6803rad -2.4668rad +52.0º +45.0º 7.0º

Table 18 Summary of Beam Angle Deviation

Delay Beam Angle Designed Beam Angle
0Δτ -45º -45.0º
1Δτ -12.7º -13.6º
2Δτ +16.7º +13.6º
3Δτ +52.0º +45.0º

Table 17 and Table 18 show that the errors in beam angles were below
7.0º. This amount of error comes with the assumption that the reference channel

72
 has an exact value of -1.6803rad phase shift. Inaccuracy in the phase shift of
reference channel may result in more errors in the measured beam angles.
Beam accuracy becomes more important as the target distance increases.
A small error in beam angle can cause inefficient power delivered or even
undetectable power at the target direction.
Another problem in the demonstrated system was that the phase shifts
measured using network analyzer changed when the fiber optic layout was
changed. However, the phase differences remained the same which means that the
time delays generated by the TTD units do not change. The change of phase shifts
seems to occur in the fiber optic lines. It seems that if the bending of fiber optic
lines is changed, the phase shift of light from input to output can change. This is
reasonable since the phase shift inside the fiber also depends on how the light is
reflected internally (Section II.2.4 and [20]). And this can change when the layout
or the bending of fiber is changed. The effect seems to get worse when the length
of fiber is not short.
This problem affects the prototype system directly since coaxial delay line
is to be designed according to the phase shift of the optical channel. This optical
channel, however, might change when the fiber lines are interrupted. Thus, in the
demonstrated system, a fixed coaxial delay line could not be introduced. If the
coaxial delay line must be used in the system, the length of the fiber must be kept
short and there should be no interruption in the layout of the fiber. In other words,
the fiber must be fixed and should not be moved.
Previous discussions suggest that accurate phase difference is necessary
for an accurate beam scanning. Accuracy in phase differences between elements
depends on the accuracy of time delays generated by TTD units and the accuracy
of the reference delay. Each TTD would have some errors in its true-time delay.
This can cause the beam angle radiated would deviate from the designed value. As
the number of channels increases, the demand for accurate time delays also
increases.

VI.5. Summary and Recommendation

73
 This chapter elaborates the experimental setup and measurements of the
prototype system that was built. It starts with the prototype setup, continued with RF
spectrum measurements, and ends with time delay measurements.
During the setup, the optical components were aligned so that the optical
signal could be detected at the end of free-space section using the receiving
collimator. PBS, linear polarizer, and half-wave plate was utilized in the process of
alignment. Before linear polarizer and PBS could be used, their axes were to be
found out. Measurements were done to determine the axes of linear polarizer and
half-wave plate.
Once the setup was done, optical power measurements were done for the four
states of time delays. Measurement results showed that the detected power at the
receiving collimator was about -20dBm to -30dBm, which was very low. Losses
seem occurred in every stages of the system. Most of the losses seem to be
introduced in the free-space section. Losses in free-space section occurred due to
reflection at interfaces between glass and air, imperfection of PBS, misalignment,
and small aperture of the receiving collimator. These losses can be compensated by
amplifying the detected optical signal using semiconductor optical amplifier.
The problem of alignment difficulty due to imperfection of optical devices’
dimension can be overcome by using high precision optical devices. The reflection
losses can be reduced by using anti-reflection coating at the interfaces. Another
approach to reduce some loss is to reduce the beam divergence. To reduce the
divergence, optical device with smaller beam divergence should be chosen. All these
approaches might help to reduce the loss in the free-space section.
RF measurements were done on several stages in the system to obtain the
detected RF spectrum. During this measurement, coupling problem was discovered
in the system. Therefore, some modifications were done on the biasing of transmitter
modules and receiver modules. The detected RF spectrum had a peak value of about
-31dBm. This value was taken with an SOA introduced between the receiving
collimator and the receiver module.
Time delay measurements were done using a network analyzer. The phase
shifts of four states were measured and converted to time delay. The time delay
results are shown in Table 16. The errors of time delay measured with respect to the

74
designed value were about 2ps to 11ps. These inaccuracies seem to contribute to
deviations of beam angles from their designed values. These deviations are shown in
Table 18. The errors were less than 7º. This amount of error, however, becomes
significant as it travels away from the antenna. Therefore, accurate time delay is
necessary for beam scanning accuracy.
Another problem encountered is that the phase shift of the system changed
when the fiber layout was changed or even when the fiber was moved slightly. Yet,
the phase differences remain the same which suggests that the time delay inserted by
TTD units do not change. This problem makes the coaxial delay cable with a fixed
time delay seems not feasible in the prototype system. When a coaxial delay coble is
to be used, the fiber should be fixed and should not be moved to reduce the phase
change of the system.

75
Chapter VII. Simulations
VII.1. Introduction
Designs on antenna beam forming system and its true time-delay systems
have been described in the previous chapters. This chapter discusses software
simulations to demonstrate the functionality of the system.
There are two simulations that were done in this project. This chapter
elaborates beam scanning simulation using Matlab. This simulation tried to simulate
the changes in beam pattern as a certain value of time delay was inserted in the
system. This simulation demonstrates the beam scanning capabilities. The other
simulation which is elaborated in detail in [18] was to check the two-bit true time-
delay system of the project. The simulation tried to build a representatives building
block to generate true time-delays. The outputs of the simulations were the generated
time delays by the system.
The beam scanning simulation used Matlab to simulate the beam scanning
capabilities of the system. This chapter only describes the simulations process and
their results without elaborating on how to use the software.

VII.2. Simulation on Design Values

The purpose of this simulation was to check the array factor and radiation
pattern of the array antenna when certain time delay is inserted. The simulation
plotted the array factor and radiation pattern of the linear array antenna. The input of
this simulation is the time delay between elements and the number of array elements.
This section shows two different plots of pattern. The first plots the changes of array
factor in polar coordinates. The second one, which shows the same information, plots
the array factor with respect to sine function of angle (sinθ). The radiation patterns
were also plotted in these two formats. Simulations that are described here take
Figure 6 as the system to be simulated. This is because the design value was based on
this system.

76
 Antenna theories suggest that the radiation pattern of an array antenna
follows multiplication rules. This means that the total radiation pattern is a
multiplication of a single element radiation pattern with the array factor of the
antenna. The array factor of the antenna is determined by the geometry and the
phase shift between elements. Thus, the changes in phase shift would affect the
array factor of the array antenna, which at the end would affect the radiation
pattern of the antenna. The beam scanning capabilities of an array antenna could
be examined by observing this array factor and its electric field radiation pattern.
The array factor of a linear array was computed using Matlab in this
simulation. The simulated array factor used Equation 3 to compute the array
factor of a linear array. The equation is presented again here for ease of reference.
  N 
sin   
1   2 
(AF) n   
N  1  
 sin  2   
 
Where   kd sin   
This equation is the normalized array factor of a uniform linear array. As
can be seen from the above equation, the input parameters are the number of array
elements (N) and the phase shift between elements (β). These two inputs were set
manually in the m-file.
The normalized array factor was then multiplied by the electric field of a
single element array. To do this operation a “.*” was used in Matlab to multiply
every element in the matrix.
The multiplication rule can be shown as follow. Figure 41 shows the
electric field of a single element and the array factor of a two-element linear array.
The array factor in this figure has zero phase shifts between its elements.

77
 (a) (b)

Figure 41 (a) Electric Field of a single element. (b) Array Factor of a two-
element linear array
The multiplication of the two pattern results in the radiation pattern of a
two-element linear array. In this case, the radiation pattern of a single element is
always the same, while the array factor might change if the number of element or
the phase shift between elements is changed. The resulting pattern is shown
below.

Figure 42 Radiation Pattern of a Two-element Linear Array

The above figure shows that when there is no phase shift between the two
elements, the beam is directed at 0º angle. In the system that has been designed,
however, this angle could not be achieved. This has been discussed in the
previous chapter. The source code is provided in Appendix A with file name
“plot_microstrip.m” and “plot_rp_zero.m”.

78
 The radiation pattern of a single element microstrip antenna is not a simple
mathematical function and one way to obtain it is to do the real measurements on
real antenna. The following simulation uses a single element microstrip radiation
pattern generated by PCAAD v.2.1, a free DOS software for antenna design. The
software was used to plot the E-plane and H-plane of a rectangular microstrip
antenna with a dimension designed in [18]. The amplitudes of E-plane plot were
then tabulated in a text file for Matlab to read. The manual to use the software is
provided in Appendix C and the source code is for this section is named
“plot_af_design.m” and “plot_rp_design.m”. The first code is to plot the array
factor while the second one is to plot the final radiation pattern after
multiplication.

VII.2.1. Beam Pattern for 0Δτ

When zero time delay is inserted, the beam should point to -45º. In this
case, the reference channel is delayed by 97.82ps and the zero delay is inserted
into the delay channel. To simulate this, a static variable was set as a reference
phase shift (for reference channel). The phase difference between elements was
then the difference between this phase shift and the inserted phase. The reference
phase shift was set as -2.2126 radians.
Figure 43 below shows the plot of antenna’s array factor when there is no
time delay inserted into the delay channel of the system. Figure 44 shows the
array factor against the sine angle in Cartesian coordinate.

Figure 43 Array Factor for 0Δτ in Polar

79
 Figure 44 Array Factor for 0Δτ with respect to Angle
The simulation result agrees with the theoretical calculation. The array
factor shows that the maximum beam is directed to angle about -45º. Figure 44
above also confirmed this result. It is shown that the maximum electric field
radiated was about at -0.7 ( sin θ = -0.7 ), which was about -45º. The theoretical
calculation has proved that when there is no time delay is inserted the phase
difference between elements is -2.2126 rad due to a fixed phase shift of the
reference channel. This phase shift between the two elements would result in
angle -45º.
Figure 43 and Figure 44 only shows the array factor of the array antenna
when there is no delay inserted. The actual beam radiation pattern depends on the
electric field radiation pattern of a single element microstrip antenna. Multiplying
Figure 43 with Figure 41(a) results in the following plots. The electric field
pattern in Figure 41(a) is a normalized value, where its maximum is at one.

Figure 45 Radiation Pattern for 0Δτ in Polar

80
 Figure 46 Radiation Pattern for 0Δτ with respect to Angle

The two figures show that the radiation pattern of the array antenna could
not reach -45º. The peak was about -0.53 or -32º. The result indicates that the
radiation pattern of microstrip antenna seems to limit the performance of antenna
beam scanning. One possible explanation is that the radiation pattern of a single
element microstrip antenna does not have uniform electric field amplitude in
every angle. Figure 41(a) shows that the amplitude of the electric field reduces as
the angle gets far away from 0º. The array factor, however, has its peak at 45º.
When the array factor was multiplied with this pattern, the peak of the beam
pattern shifted towards 0º.
Another observation showed that two elements array results in a very
broad beam. This is a disadvantage since the power radiated is not concentrated at
the desired direction. This poor performance can be improved by increasing the
number of array elements in the system.
This may explain why it could not reach -45º as well. As the beam gets
broader, it becomes more difficult for the antenna to scan the beam far away from
0º. When the number of element increases, the beam gets narrower. With this
narrow beam, the antenna is able to scan the beam further away from 0º. The
following figure shows the same plot for 8-element linear array.

81
 Figure 47 Radiation Pattern for 0Δτ (n=8)

The figure shows that the beam can be directed to angle -45º as the
number of element increases. As the number of element increases, the simulation
showed a narrower beam as has been discussed before.
The other limitation that can be observed is that the side lobe of two-
element array had significant amplitude. Increasing the number of array elements
may help to reduce the amplitude of the side lobe with the expense of the increase
of the number of side lobes. This concept can be seen from Figure 45 and Figure
47.

VII.2.2. Beam Pattern for 1Δτ

The second simulation shows the beam pattern when the system is set to
insert 1Δτ. In this simulation, the reference channel was once again set to have a
phase shift of -2.2126rad. A time delay of 65.21ps would result in a phase shift of
-1.4750rad. This value was inserted manually inside the m-file.
The phase shift between elements was then the difference between the two
phases. The array factor is shown in the two figures below.

82
 (a) (b)

Figure 48 Array Factor for 1Δτ

The simulation results seem to agree the theoretical calculation. The

maximum in Figure 48 is at about -0.23, which about -13º. The array factor in
polar form also suggests the same conclusion. Appendix B shows the bigger
picture for simulation results.
When this array factor is multiplied by a single element pattern, the results
are shown below.

(a) (b)
Figure 49 Radiation Pattern for 1Δτ
Observation on the side lobe showed that it had less amplitude than the
previous case. In this case, the amplitude of side lobe was about 35% of the main
lobe. The peak of the radiation pattern was at -0.17 or -9.8º. This result also shows
some shift in the peak of the beam. Same explanation can be applied here as in the
previous case. Note that the error in beam’s peak reduces as it is directed towards

83
the 0º. The previous case showed 13º errors while in this case it was only 3.8º.
This is reasonable since the radiation amplitude of a single element microstrip
gets close to one as it moves towards 0º.

VII.2.3. Beam Pattern for 2Δτ and 3Δτ

The other two simulation results indicate the same results. The plots for
array factor are presented in the figures below.

(a) (b)
Figure 50 Array Factor for 2Δτ

(a) (b)

Figure 51 Array Factor for 3Δτ

Figure 50 shows that the maximum radiation of the beam was directed at
about +13º. This result agrees with the calculated value in the design of the true
time delay units. The second figure (Figure 51) also gives the same conclusion for
the case of +45º.

84
 As in the two cases before, radiation pattern of a single element microstrip
seems to affect the array antenna’s radiation pattern. The radiation patterns are not
shown again since it is just the mirror image of the plots in section VII.2.1 and
VII.2.2. Some errors occurred in the beam’s peak may be due to the
characteristics of the radiation pattern of microstrip antenna and due to a small
number of array element.

VII.3. Simulations on Measured Delays

Previous section describes the simulation on beam scanning when a design
value time delay is inserted. Last chapter showed that the actual time delay generated
by the TTD units was not exactly the same as the design value. Another point is that
the previous simulations use Figure 6 as the system to be simulated. Since this
section tries to simulate the measurement result of time delays, the system that is
used is the one shown in Figure 8. This simulation takes into account the coaxial
delay cable and the non-zero delay of the optical channel. The m-files for the
following simulations are provided in Appendix A under “plot_af_measured.m” and
“plot_rp_measured.m”.
The phase shift that is introduced by the coaxial delay cable was assumed to
be ideally -1.6803rad in the simulation. By assuming this amount of delay, the non-
zero delay in the optical channel has been taken into account. The phase shift of the
coaxial cable was set as a constant in the program. The input of the simulation would
then be the phase shift that were measured and are shown in Table 15. The
simulation results for array factor are shown in the figures below.

(a) (b)

85
 (c) (d)
Figure 52 Array Factors for (a) 0Δτ, (b) 1Δτ, (c) 2Δτ, (d) 3Δτ
Figure 52 shows the beam scanning capabilities of the system that was built.
The beam scanning capabilities shown in this figure are about the same as the one
using design values. However, in order to get the accurate beam’s peak, the plot of
electric field with respect to the sine function of the angle can be observed. These
plots are displayed in Figure 53.

(a) (b)

(c) (d)
Figure 53 Array Factors for (a) 0Δτ, (b) 1Δτ, (c) 2Δτ, (d) 3Δτ w.r.t Angle

86
 The maximum peak for 0Δτ state was about -0.7. This value corresponds to
about 45º. This result is the same as the one in Table 18. This is because, the
reference delay of -1.6803rad was calculated based on the phase shift of this state.
Thus, the result is supposed to be the same as the designed value.
The peak values for states 1Δτ, 2Δτ, and 3Δτ were at -0.22, +0.29, and +0.79
respectively (Refer to Appendix B for bigger picture on the result). These values
correspond to angle -12.7º, 16.9º, and 52.2º. The results are about the same with the
estimated beam angle tabulated in Table 18. This result suggests that the calculation
in the previous chapter is correct.
These simulations verified the calculation in the previous chapter on the beam
angle deviation. Simulation results suggest that the calculated beam angle deviations
tabulated in Table 18 are correct. Some differences between the simulation and the
calculated one may be due to inaccuracy in reading the graph plotted by the
simulation and due to the rounding effect when calculating the values manually.
Figure 52 and Figure 53 only show the array factor of the antenna. The actual
radiation pattern is multiplication of a single element radiation pattern with its array
factor. These multiplication results are shown below.

(a) (b)

87
 (c) (d)
Figure 54 Radiation Patterns in Polar for (a) 0Δτ, (b) 1Δτ, (c) 2Δτ, (d) 3Δτ

(a) (b)

(c) (d)
Figure 55 Radiation Patterns for (a) 0Δτ, (b) 1Δτ, (c) 2Δτ, (d) 3Δτ w.r.t Angle

88
 The simulation results showed that the maximum beam for 0Δτ was at
-0.52 or -31.3º. The peaks for the other states were -0.18 (1Δτ), +0.17 (2Δτ),
+0.52 (2Δτ).These values correspond to angles -10.4º, +9.8º, and +31.3º. There
are some differences with the values tabulated in Table 18. The differences are
tabulated in the following table.

Table 19 Simulated Beam Angle Deviations

Simulated Calculated Design Peak |Error| |Error|
Peak Peak from the from the design
calculated value value
-31.3º -45.0º -45.0º 13.7º 13.7º
-10.4º -12.7º -13.6º 2.3º 3.2º
+9.8º +16.7º +13.6º 6.9º 3.8º
+31.3º +52.0º +45º 20.7º 13.7º

Table 19 shows that the errors are quite large for angles far away from 0º.
For example at the desired angle +45º, the error is the largest which is 13.7º. This
can be explained by looking at the radiation pattern of a single element microstrip
antenna. Figure 41(a) shows that the electric field decreases as the angle increases
from 0º. When the array factor is multiplied by this pattern, the beam peak of the
array factor is shifted towards 0º. Another explanation that is possible is that the
beam width was too big. Wider beam reduces the performance of the beam
scanning since it can not reach angles that are far away from 0º. Narrower beam
can be achieved by increasing the number of elements. Increasing the number of
elements, however, may increase the number of side lobes in the beam pattern.
Error of 13.7º is very significant and may cause larger error when the
target distance is far away. This may result in inefficient power delivered or even
undetectable power at the desired location. Therefore, high accuracy in beam
angle design is a necessity for long distance application.

VII.4. Summary and Recommendation

89
 The beam scanning simulation showed that the designed time delay would
result in the desired beam angle for array factor patterns. Since microstrip
radiation pattern decreases as the angle increases from 0º, the radiation pattern of
array antenna is likely not able to be exactly the same as the design. The beam’s
peak is shifted towards 0º. This makes the array antenna can not scan the beam to
±45º. This problem becomes more severe when the number of array elements is
small. Small number of elements results in wider beam. A solution to this problem
is to increase the number of array elements. A large number of elements, however,
may result in the increase of side lobes and the increase in system complexity.
Therefore, a trade-off must be made in the design.
This true time delay system also suffers from a significant amount of side
lobe when it is directed at ±45º. This problem can be overcome by also increasing
the number of array elements in the system.
The second simulations tried to verify the calculation of beam angle
deviations tabulated in Table 18. Simulation showed the results were the same for
array factor simulations. Some differences in the simulation values may be due to
inaccuracy in reading the graph plotted and due to the rounding effect when
calculating the values in Table 18 manually. Some errors seem to occur when the
array factor is multiplied by a single element pattern to produce the actual
radiation pattern. The results show that beam’s peaks deviate from the design. The
worse errors seem to occurr for angles far away from 0º.
Errors in beam’s peak become significant as the target location becomes
far away from the antenna. This is because the difference in beam’s peak
increases as the distance increases. Therefore, high accuracy in beam angle design
is necessary for long distance application. The errors in beam patterns can be
reduced by improving the performance of antenna, or by selecting another antenna
structure that has better radiation pattern for beam scanning, and also by
improving the TTD systems as has been recommended in the previous chapter.

90
Chapter VIII. Conclusion
The purpose of this project was to build a true-time delay system for antenna
beam formation using switched free-space section method. True-time delay units
were to be designed to allow beam scanning from -45º to +45º using two-element
linear array antenna.
The design of true-time delay units were based on the system displayed in
Figure 6. However, the system was modified in order to build the prototype. This
was because of limitations in the components availability, budget, and time. Two
units of TTD had been designed to scan the beam at discrete angles: -45º, -13.6º,
+13.6º, and +45º. Measurement on time delays generated showed that the errors were
about 2ps to 11ps. This amount of errors causes a deviation in the maximum
amplitude of the beam angle. The deviations in beam angles were calculated and they
were less than 7º.
The inaccuracy in time delays generated might be caused by the inaccuracy
of the optical devices’ dimension and the inaccuracy of air-gap dimension in TTD
unit configuration. Another possible source of errors would be the difference in the
refractive index of the glass with the value that was used in the design. Design
calculation assumes all prisms, PBSs, and spacer have a refractive index of 1.5.
There might be slight differences in the refractive index of the components used. One
example of error is the refractive index of the spacer in TTD unit S0 was 1.5168 and
the length is 20.80mm instead of 1.5 and 20.90mm length. Besides the inaccuracy in
dimension, the error seems to be caused by the non-horizontal light path. This is
because the prisms and PBS might have some elevation as it was mounted. The path
of the reflected light would deviate from the theoretical path. The theoretical path
assumes that reflected light goes through in the same horizontal plane (x-y plane).
However, the actual reflected light might come out from this plane and this would
cause the distance is longer than the theoretical one.
The accuracy of maximum beam pattern might get even worse as it is
transmitted by the microstrip path array antenna. This is indicated by the simulation
described in Chapter VII.. Matlab simulations showed that the maximum beam could
not be directed to ±45º as the array factor was multiplied by the single elements

91
pattern of a microstrip array antenna. The error in beam angle became more severe
and was about 13º. The maximum error occurred at angles far away from 0º.
These results are reasonable since the amplitude of the electric field of a
single element microstrip antenna decreases as the angle increases far away from 0º.
The multiplication with array factor may cause the maximum beam to be shifted
towards 0º. That is one possible explanation why all simulated beam’s peaks were
less than the calculated values and became closer to 0º. Another possible reason why
the system could not reach ±45º can be the small number of elements. The system
with two elements has a very wide beam. As the beam width gets bigger, the ability
to scan the beam to angles far away from 0º reduces. This problem can be solved by
increasing the number of array elements in the system. Increasing the number of
elements would result in the increase number of side lobes and the increase of
system’s complexity.
Constraints in this project come from components availability, budget and
time limitation. More accurate time delays can be generated when high precision
optical devices are used. However, using high precision dimension optical devices
will cause the cost of the project to increase. Another problem in the project was due
to the poor performance of the laser source. The laser source provided inside Thales
Optical Link does not have any temperature control. Temperature of the system
increases as the operational time increases. This reduces the performance of the
optical link as the time increases.
Due to limitation in time and equipment, the system could not be integrated
and tested with the antenna that had been designed. Radiation pattern measurements
of the overall system will help to investigate the system in more detail. Time delay
measurements were done only on continuous wave RF signal due to limitation in
time. Further experiments can help to investigate the system by examining the
performance of the system for modulated RF signal. This is important since the
signal to be transmitted by an antenna usually carries information. Thus, analysis on
bandwidth performance should be done as well on the system. As in other
communication system, linearity of the system plays an important role. Therefore,
investigation on system linearity should be carried out in further research. Another
recommendation is to study the system when it is integrated in the receiver antenna.

92
References
[1] Esman, Ronald D., et al, 1998, ‘New Array Capabilities by Photonic
Beamforming’, IEEE MTT-S Digest, pp 1363-1366.
[2] Frigyes, Istvan, 1995,‘Optically Generated True-time Delay in Phased-Array
Antennas’, IEEE Transaction on Microwave Theory and Technique, vol 43, no.
9, p 2378-2386.
[3] Mailloux, R J, 1994, Phased Array Antenna Handbook. Norwood: Artech House,
ch 1.
[4] Koepf, G.A., 1984, ’Optical Processor for Phased-Array Antenna Beam
Formation’, SPIE vol. 477, p 75.
[5] Esman, R. D., et al, 1992, ‘Microwave True Time-Delay Modulator Using Fiber-
Optic Dispersion’, Electronics Letters, vol. 28(20), pp 1905-1907.
[6] Esman, R. D., et al, 1993, ‘Fiber-optic Prism True Time-delay Antenna Feed’,
IEEE Photon. Tech. Lett. 5:1347.
[7] Esman, R. D., et al, 1995, ‘True time-delay fiber-optic control of a phased-array
transmitter with three-octave bandwidth’, IEEE National Telesystems Conference
Proceedings, 1995, p 175-178.
[8] Frankel, M.Y., 1998, ‘A Wide-band Fiber-Optic True-Time-Steered Array
Receiver Capable of Multiple Independent Simultaneous Beams’, IEEE
Photonics Technology Letter, vol 10, no. 5, p722-724.
[9] Frankel, M. Y. et al, Appl Optics, vol 36, pp 9261-9268, 1997
[10] Soref, R., 1992, ‘Optical Dispersion Techniquie for Time-delay Beam Steering’,
Applied Optics, vol. 31(35), pp 7395-7397.
[11] Molony, A., 1995, ‘Fiber Grating Time Delay Element for Phased Array
Antennas’, Electronics Letters, vol 31(17), pp 1485-1486.
[12] Walston, W. Ng, et al, ‘The First Demonstration of an Optically Steered
Microwave Phased Array’, J. Lightwave Technol., vol 9, no. 9, pp 1124-1131.
[13] Jemison, W.D., 1993, ‘Acoustooptically controlled true time delays’, IEEE
Microwave and Guided Wave Letters.,vol 3, no. 3, pp 72-74.
[14] Dolfi, D., et al, 1996,’ Experimental demonstration of a phased-array antenna
optically controlled with phase and time delays’, Applied Optics, vol 35, no. 36,
pp5293-5300.
[15] Chazelas, et. Al, 2003, ‘8 Channels, 5 bits wideband optical beam steering up to
Ku band’, MWP Workshop.
[16] Balanis, Constantine A., 1997, Antenna theory: analysis and design, 2nd ed. John
Wiley & Sons, sections 6.2, 6.3, and 6.10.
[17] Cheng, David K., 1993, Fundamentals of Engineering Electromagnetics.
Addison-Wesley, sections 10-5.
[18] Kananggar, Jebie, 2004,’Free Space Optics for Antenna Beamforming(A)’.
[19] Breuil, 2001, ‘S Band Optical Link Application Note’, Thales Airborne System.
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93
Appendix A. Matlab Source Code
File name: plot_microstrip.m
%
% This function is to plot the radiation pattern of a single element
% microstrip antenna, the following function reads angles and the
% e-plane amplitude in dB and then converted to normalized amplitude
% this normalized amplitude is then plotted

fp=fopen('array.txt','r'); %open file for radiation pattern

n=91; %number of sample data
for i=1:n, %read file
angle(i)=fscanf(fp,'%f',1); %read axis, from -90 to 90deg
amp(i)=fscanf(fp,'%f',1); %read amplitute in dB
end

teta=angle/180*pi; %convert degrees to radian

amplitude=10.^(amp/10); %convert dB to normalized amplitude
polar(teta,amplitude); %plot the amplitude in polar
% coordinate

File name: plot_rp_zero.m

%
% This function is to plot the radiation pattern of
% a 2-element array antenna, the following function calculate the
% array factor of an array antenna and then multiply it with a
% single element electric field radiation pattern.
% the single element radiation pattern is obtained from file
% "array.txt"
%
fp=fopen('array.txt','r'); %open file for radiation pattern
n=91; %number of sample data
for i=1:n, %read file
angle(i)=fscanf(fp,'%f',1); %read axis, from -90 to 90deg
amp(i)=fscanf(fp,'%f',1); %read amplitute in dB
end

teta=angle/180*pi; %convert degrees to radian

amplitude=10.^(amp/10); %convert dB to normalized amplitude

%defining constants
c=3e+8; %speed of light
f=3.6e+9; %RF frequency
lambda=c/f; %wavelength
dy=lambda/2; %distance between elements in y axis
k=2*pi/lambda; %wavelength number
%end of definition

%specify parameters
n=2; %number of element in y axis

beta_r=0; %reference channel phase shift

94
%change the the following value if you wish to change
%the angle direction of the beam by changing its phase difference
beta_d=0; %for -45deg
%beta_d=-1.4750 %for -13deg
%beta_d=-2.9503 %for +13deg
%beta_d=-4.4252 %for +45deg

beta=beta_d-beta_r;

%computing array factor

lambda_y=(k*dy*sin(teta))+beta;
num=sin((n/2)*lambda_y);
denum=sin(lambda_y/2);
term=(1/n)*(num./denum);
af=abs(term)
radiation=af.*amplitude;

%plotting the radiation pattern

figure(1);
plot(sin(teta),radiation); %to plot with respect sin(teta)
figure(3);
polar(teta,radiation); %to plot in polar coordinate

File name: plot_af_design.m

%
% This function is to plot the radiation pattern of an array
% antenna, the following function calculate the array factor of
% an array antenna and then multiply it with a single element
% electric field radiation pattern.

%defining constants
c=3e+8; %speed of light
f=3.6e+9; %RF frequency
lambda=c/f; %wavelength
dy=lambda/2; %distance between elements in y axis
k=2*pi/lambda; %wavelength number
%end of definition

%specify parameters
n=2; %number of element in y axis

beta_r=-2.2126; %reference channel phase shift

%change the the following value if you wish to change

%the angle direction of the beam by changin its phase difference
beta_d=0; %for -45deg
%beta_d=-1.4750 %for -13deg
%beta_d=-2.9503 %for +13deg
%beta_d=-4.4252 %for +45deg

beta=beta_d-beta_r;

% use the following function to generate angle space with 100

elements
teta=linspace(0,2*pi); %for plot

95
%computing array factor
lambda_y=(k*dy*sin(teta))+beta;
num=sin((n/2)*lambda_y);
denum=sin(lambda_y/2);
term=(1/n)*(num./denum);
af=abs(term);

%plotting the radiation pattern

figure(1);
plot(sin(teta),af); %to plot with respect sin(teta)
figure(3);
polar(teta,af); %to plot in polar coordinate

File Name: plot_rp_design.m

%
% This function is to plot the radiation pattern of an array
% antenna, the following function calculate the array factor of
% an array antenna and then multiply it with a single element
% electric field radiation pattern.
%
% This function is to plot the radiation pattern of an array
% antenna, the following function calculate the array factor of
% an array antenna and then multiply it with a single element
% electric field radiation pattern.
fp=fopen('array.txt','r'); %open file for radiation pattern
n=91; %number of sample data
for i=1:n, %read file
angle(i)=fscanf(fp,'%f',1); %read axis, from -90 to 90deg
amp(i)=fscanf(fp,'%f',1); %read amplitute in dB
end

teta=angle/180*pi; %convert degrees to radian

amplitude=10.^(amp/10); %convert from dB

%defining constants
c=3e+8; %speed of light
f=3.6e+9; %RF frequency
lambda=c/f; %wavelength
dy=lambda/2; %distance between elements in y axis
k=2*pi/lambda; %wavelength number
%end of definition

%specify parameters
n=2; %number of element in y axis

beta_r=-2.2126; %reference channel phase shift

%change the the following value if you wish to change

%the angle direction of the beam by changin its phase difference
beta_d=0; %for -45deg
%beta_d=-1.4750 %for -13deg
%beta_d=-2.9503 %for +13deg
%beta_d=-4.4252 %for +45deg

beta=beta_d-beta_r;

96
%computing array factor
lambda_y=(k*dy*sin(teta))+beta;
num=sin((n/2)*lambda_y);
denum=sin(lambda_y/2);
term=(1/n)*(num./denum);
af=abs(term);
radiation=af.*amplitude;
%plotting the radiation pattern
figure(1);
plot(sin(teta),radiation); %to plot with respect sin(teta)
figure(3);
polar(teta,radiation); %to plot in polar coordinate

File name: plot_af_measured.m

%
% This function is to plot the radiation pattern of an array
% antenna, the following function calculate the array factor of
% an array antenna and then multiply it with a single element
% electric field radiation pattern.

%defining constants
c=3e+8; %speed of light
f=3.6e+9; %RF frequency
lambda=c/f; % wavelength
dy=lambda/2; %distance between element in y axis
k=2*pi/lambda; %wavelength number
%end of definition

%specify parameters
n=2; %number of element in y axis

beta_r=-1.6803; %phase shift of coaxial delay line

%change the the following value if you wish to change

%the angle direction of the beam by changin its phase difference
%beta_d=+0.5323; %for -50.6deg
beta_d=-0.9941; %for -12.7deg
%beta_d=-2.5770; %for +16.7deg
%beta_d=2.1361; %for +52deg

beta=beta_d-beta_r;

% use the following function to generate angle space with 100

elements
teta=linspace(0,2*pi);

%computing array factor

lambda_y=(k*dy*sin(teta))+beta;
num=sin((n/2)*lambda_y);
denum=sin(lambda_y/2);
term=(1/n)*(num./denum);
af=abs(term);

%plotting the radiation pattern

figure(1);
plot(sin(teta),af); %to plot with respect to sin(teta)
figure(3);

97
polar(teta,af); %to plot in polar coordinate

File name: plot_rp_measured.m

%
% This function is to plot the radiation pattern of an array
% antenna, the following function calculate the array factor of
% an array antenna and then multiply it with a single element
% electric field radiation pattern.
fp=fopen('array.txt','r'); %open file for radiation pattern
n=91; %number of sample data
for i=1:n, %read file
angle(i)=fscanf(fp,'%f',1); %read axis, from -90 to 90deg
amp(i)=fscanf(fp,'%f',1); %read amplitute in dB
end

teta=angle/180*pi; %convert from degree to radian

amplitude=10.^(amp/10); %convert from dB

%defining constants
c=3e+8; %speed of light
f=3.6e+9; %RF frequency
lambda=c/f; % wavelength
dy=lambda/2; %distance between element in y axis
k=2*pi/lambda; %wavelength number
%end of definition

%specify parameters
n=2; %number of element in y axis

beta_r=-1.6803; %phase shift of coaxial delay line

%change the the following value if you wish to change

%the angle direction of the beam by changin its phase difference
beta_d=+0.5323; %for -50.6deg
%beta_d=-0.9941; %for -12.7deg
%beta_d=-2.5770; %for +16.7deg
%beta_d=2.1361; %for +52deg

beta=beta_d-beta_r;

%computing array factor

lambda_y=(k*dy*sin(teta))+beta;
num=sin((n/2)*lambda_y);
denum=sin(lambda_y/2);
term=(1/n)*(num./denum);
af=abs(term)
radiation=af.*amplitude;

%plotting the radiation pattern

figure(1);
plot(sin(teta),radiation); %to plot with respect to sin(teta)
figure(3);
polar(teta,radiation); %to plot in polar coordinate

File name: array.txt

98
The first column is the angle (from -90º to +90º) and the second column is the
amplitude in dB. This numbers were taken using PCAAD v.2.1.
-90 -1.87
-88 -1.87
-86 -1.86
-84 -1.85
-82 -1.83
-80 -1.81
-78 -1.79
-76 -1.76
-74 -1.72
-72 -1.68
-70 -1.64
-68 -1.59
-66 -1.54
-64 -1.49
-62 -1.44
-60 -1.38
-58 -1.32
-56 -1.26
-54 -1.19
-52 -1.13
-50 -1.07
-48 -1.00
-46 -0.94
-44 -0.87
-42 -0.81
-40 -0.74
-38 -0.68
-36 -0.62
-34 -0.56
-32 -0.50
-30 -0.44
-28 -0.39
-26 -0.34
-24 -0.29
-22 -0.25
-20 -0.21
-18 -0.17
-16 -0.13
-14 -0.10
-12 -0.08
-10 -0.05
-08 -0.03
-06 -0.02
-04 -0.01
-02 -0.00
-00 -0.00

99
02 -0.00
04 -0.01
06 -0.02
08 -0.03
10 -0.05
12 -0.08
14 -0.10
16 -0.13
18 -0.17
20 -0.21
24 -0.29
22 -0.25
26 -0.34
28 -0.39
30 -0.44
32 -0.50
34 -0.56
36 -0.62
38 -0.68
40 -0.74
42 -0.81
44 -0.87
46 -0.94
48 -1.00
50 -1.07
52 -1.13
54 -1.19
56 -1.26
58 -1.32
60 -1.38
62 -1.44
64 -1.49
66 -1.54
68 -1.59
70 -1.64
72 -1.68
74 -1.72
76 -1.76
78 -1.79
80 -1.81
82 -1.83
84 -1.85
86 -1.86
88 -1.87
90 -1.87

100
Appendix B.Simulation Results

Figure 41(a)

Figure 41(b)

101
Figure 42

Figure 43

102
Figure 44

Figure 45

103
Figure 46

Figure 47

104
Figure 48(a)

Figure 48(b)

105
Figure 49(a)

Figure 49(b)

106
Figure 50(a)

Figure 50(b)

107
Figure 51(a)

Figure 51(b)

108
Figure 52(a)

Figure 52(b)

109
Figure 52(c)

Figure 52(d)

110
Figure 53(a)

Figure 53(b)

111
Figure 53(c)

Figure 53(d)

112
Figure 54(a)

Figure 54(b)

113
Figure 54(c)

Figure 54(d)

114
Figure 55(a)

Figure 55(b)

115
Figure 55(c)

Figure 55(d)

116
Appendix C.PCAAD v.2.1
PCAAD v.2.1 is a DOS software package for the analysis and design of
antennas, including wire antennas, horn antennas, arrays, and microstrip antennas.
The software can be downloaded at:
http://rf.rfglobalnet.com/software_modeling/software/3/413.htm
This software was used in the project to obtain the radiation pattern of a
rectangular microstrip patch antenna. The amplitudes of the E-plane plotted by this
software were saved in “array.txt” file as an input file for beam scanning simulation.
To plot the radiation pattern of a microstrip patch array antenna using this software,
the following procedures can be followed.
1. Download the software from the provided link above. The file is in Zip
format. “Winzip” software is needed to extract the files from the downloaded
“pcaad21.zip”.
2. Extract the file using Winzip or other compression software.
3. Run the file named “PCAAD.EXE”. The screen of the computer will be
changed to DOS. The following menu is displayed.
***MAIN MENU***
Wire Antennas
Array Antennas
Aperture Antennas
Microstrip Antennas
Trans. Lines & Waveguides
Utilities

4. Use the arrow keys (up and down keys) to go to “Microstrip Antennas”. Press
ENTER key to select the menu. The following menu appears.
*Mictrostrip Antennas*
Rectangular Patch
Circular Patch
Aperture Coupled Patch

117
5. Select “Rectangular patch” and press ENTER. The following data must be
entered. The data provided comes from the dimension of the antenna that was
design. Detail description on antenna design is provided in [18].
Enter the patch length (cm) : 1.681
Enter the patch width (cm) : 2.204
Enter the dielectric constant : 6.15
Enter substrate thickness : 0.0635
Enter probe distance from rad. edge (cm) : 0.579

6. Press ENTER to continue when it is asked to enter the “centre frequency”.

The following screen will then be displayed.

7. Select “Plot Patterns” inside the box “Select Action”. A plot of E-plane and
H-plane will then be displayed. Press left or right keys to move the cursors
and to record down the amplitude.

118
Appendix D. Laser Diode
Datasheets

119
120
Appendix E.List of Components
no Name Model Q* Owner Supplier Remarks 
Optical platform,  
1 60cmx60cm   1 NTRC Newport   
 
2 Posts   6 NTRC Newport  
  
3 Post holders, 3in   6 NTRC Newport  
  
4 Post Collar   6 NTRC Newport  
  
5 Screw   12 NTRC -  
Thales Optical   
6 Link   1 Thales -  
Infrared   
7 sensitivity card   1 NTRC    
Fiber
Polarization   
8 controller   1 Thales Fiberpro  
Connector   
9 Adapter, FC-FC   2 Thales -  
Fiber pigtailed   
10 collimators F-COL-9-13 2 Thales Newport  
Compact to hold grin lenses
11 Kinematic mount KMS/M 2 Thales ThorLabs  
IR linear   
12 polarizer, 1/2" LPIR050 1 Thales ThorLabs  
Rotation stage,
13 1/2" diameter RSP05/M 1 Thales ThorLabs to hold polarizer
Spanner
14 Wrench SPW603 1 Thales ThorLabs to screw rotation stage
Right angle
prisms  
15 10x10mm F32-330 4 Thales Edmund  
Kinematic
platform mount to hold prisms and
16 50x50mm KM100B 2 Thales ThorLabs beam splitter
Prism mounting to hold prism on
17 hardware PM1 6 Thales ThorLabs platform mount
 
Multi-Order WPMH05M-  
18 wave plates 1310 1 Thales ThorLabs  
Rotation Stage, to hold Wave plate
19 1" diameter RSP1 1 Thales ThorLabs  
Polarizing cube
beamsplitters
20 10mm 03PBS073 4 Thales MellesGriot  

Thales Optical Link Components:

1. Laser diode 1310nm
2. Photodetector
3. Single Mode fiber optics 0.9mm diameter
*Q = Quantity

121
Appendix F. Setup Photos

Components and Equipments

True-time Delay Unit

122
True-time Delay Unit

Both TTD Units

123