Computer aided design and simulation of an intergrated photonic delay line system for phased array antenna and other microve signal processing applications
Over the past few years, phased array antennas and variable RF/Microwave delay lines have been the subject of much research. This thesis presents a photonic solution to the generation of multiple, compact delay lines. Variable time delays are generated by optically tapping points on an acousto-optic cell by the use of a deformable mirror device. Isolation of a particular time delay is accomplished by the conversion of a time delay point into a corresponding spatial frequency by the use of appropriate optics. The desired time delay is recovered by heterodyning a local oscillator with the desired spatial frequency, selected by a tiltable mirror device. Multiple delay lines are produced by the use of a binary optic device. The design and simulation of the integrated optical system was carried out using a real ray tracing program written by the author. Theoretical signal to noise calculations are also carried out
