Optically fed antenna and optically fed antenna array

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10490893-B2
Application number	US-201615242459-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Aug 19, 2016
Priority date	Aug 19, 2015
Publication date	Nov 26, 2019
Grant date	Nov 26, 2019

Abstract

An optically-fed tightly-coupled array (TCA) antenna comprises a plurality of photodiodes and antennas. Each photodiode may receive an optical signal from an optical fiber and convert the optical signal into an RF driving signal to drive a corresponding antenna to which it is connected. Each photodiode may be connected to the antenna. In some examples, the TCA is capable of ultra-wideband operation ranging from 2-12 GHz and wide beam-steering capability up to 40° from the broadside. Inductance peaking and resistance matching may be employed.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An antenna array system, comprising:
a substrate;
a plurality of dipole antennas mounted on said substrate and configured to operate as an antenna array, each dipole antenna having first and second radiating arms extending in a first direction and having a length in the first direction of L; and
a plurality of photodiodes mounted on the substrate, each photodiode configured to generate an RF current to drive a corresponding dipole antenna to which the photodiode is connected, each photodiode having an anode electrically connected to the first radiating arm of a corresponding dipole antenna with a corresponding first conductor, and a cathode electrically connected to the second radiating arm of the corresponding dipole antenna with a corresponding second conductor, wherein an extending length of the corresponding first conductor as measured from a first connection point of the corresponding first conductor to the anode to a second connection point of the corresponding first conductor to the first radiating arm is less than the length L of the dipole antennas, and wherein an extending length of the corresponding second conductor as measured from a first connection point of the corresponding second conductor to the cathode to a second connection point of the corresponding second conductor to the second radiating arm is less than the length L of the dipole antennas.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein the second connection point on each radiating arm is located at a central portion of the radiating arm.

3. The system of claim 1 , wherein the radiating arms of adjacent first and second dipole antennas are connected to each other.

4. The system of claim 1 , wherein the radiating arms of adjacent ones of the plurality of dipole antennas are electrically coupled to each other by a corresponding capacitor.

5. The system of claim 4 , further including inter-digital capacitors each connected between the radiating arms of a corresponding dipole antenna.

6. The system of claim 4 , wherein each of the capacitors has a capacitance of 0.1 μF or greater.

7. The system of claim 1 , further comprising resistors each connected across the radiating arms of a corresponding dipole antenna.

8. The system of claim 1 , wherein each first conductor and each second conductor comprises a corresponding spiral inductor.

9. The system of claim 1 , wherein the system does not include any baluns.

10. The system of claim 1 , wherein each of the photodiodes receives input signals via an optical fiber.

11. The system of claim 1 , wherein said dipole antennas are mounted on a first surface of the substrate, and the photodiodes are mounted on a second surface, opposite to the first surface, of the substrate.

12. The system of claim 1 , wherein the extending lengths of the first and second conductors are less than L/2.

13. The system of claim 1 , wherein no RF amplifier is used to amplify the RF signals output by the photodiodes.

14. The system of claim 1 , further comprising a plurality of optical fibers, each optical fiber being mounted at a position over a corresponding photodiode to emit light to be incident onto the corresponding photodiode.

15. The system of claim 14 ,
wherein each photodiode comprises a PIN diode comprising a p-doped semiconductor region, an intrinsic semiconductor region and an n-doped semiconductor region, where the anode of the photodiode is electrically connected to p-doped semiconductor region of the PIN diode and the cathode is electrically connected to the n-doped semiconductor region of the PIN diode.

16. The system of claim 15 , wherein each first conductor and each second conductor are formed by a wiring layer of the substrate and a corresponding conductive via extending at least partially through the substrate connected to the wiring layer of the substrate.

17. The system of claim 1 ,
wherein the plurality of photodiodes are mounted on a first surface of the substrate; and
wherein, with respect to a vertical direction that is perpendicular to the first surface of the substrate, for each of the plurality of dipole antennas, a first vertical distance between the dipole antenna and the cathode of the corresponding photodiode to which the dipole antenna is connected is less than 7.5 mm and a second vertical distance between the dipole antenna and the anode of the corresponding photodiode is less than 7.5 mm.

18. The system of claim 1 , wherein the system is an ultra-wideband tightly coupled phase array system.

19. An antenna array system, comprising:
a substrate;
a plurality of dipole antennas mounted on said substrate and configured to operate as an antenna array, each dipole antenna having first and second radiating arms extending in a first direction and having a length in the first direction of L; and
a plurality of photodiodes mounted on the substrate, each photodiode configured to generate an RF signal to drive a corresponding dipole antenna to which the photodiode is connected, each photodiode having an anode electrically connected to the first radiating arm of a corresponding dipole antenna with a corresponding first electrical path comprising a corresponding first conductor, and a cathode electrically connected to the second radiating arm of the corresponding dipole antenna with a corresponding second electrical path comprising a corresponding second conductor,
wherein each first electrical path and each second electrical path does not include an RF amplifier.

20. The system of claim 19 , wherein the system does not include any RF transmission lines to provide an RF signal to the dipole antennas.

Assignees

• Phase Sensitive Innovations Inc

Inventors

• Shi Shouyuan
• Bai Jian
• Schuetz Chris
• Schneider Garrett
• Prather Dennis

Classifications

• H01Q9/285

  Planar dipole (H01Q9/065 takes precedence; patch antenna H01Q9/0407) · CPC title

• H01Q21/062

  using dipole aerials; (H01Q21/067, H01Q21/068 take precedence) · CPC title

• H10W90/754

  between a chip and a stacked insulating package substrate, interposer or RDL · CPC title

• H01Q3/2676 Primary

  Optically controlled phased array · CPC title

• H01L2224/48091

  Electricity · mapped topic