Photonic Radio
Abstract
The rapid pace of wireless technology development has created a commercial technology base with accessible components that span the radio spectrum up to 100 GHz. When faced with agile or unknown threats across decades of bandwidth, conventional radio frequency (RF) systems perform poorly. Massively channelized receivers spanning just tens of GHz also have unacceptable size and power envelopes for very large defense platforms. Recent developments in integrated photonics have demonstrated the potential to channelize, filter and down-convert RF signals in the photonic domain with significantly improved performance and greatly reduced size. The Photonic Radio program will build on this foundation to deliver a chip-scale photonic channelized receiver spanning 20 to 50 GHz in 200 MHz-wide channels. The program will design and build a complete and compact solution with intimate integration of electronics with high performance photonic devices, such as very high Q filters and on-chip high-power lasers. The program will also package the prototype system and conduct field tests for insertion into advanced weapons systems.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Accomplishment
- Publication Date
- Oct 01, 2016
- Source ID
- 2124fe8dda8e53d31c2397d6d2daef0e