Device for optically receiving a signal coming from a phased antenna array and associated antenna system

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11283168-B2
Application number	US-201816636831-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Aug 7, 2018
Priority date	Aug 8, 2017
Publication date	Mar 22, 2022
Grant date	Mar 22, 2022

Abstract

The invention relates to an optical reception device for receiving a signal from an antenna array comprising:a light source generating an optical carrier and M phased optical beams which are frequency-shifted relative to the optical carrier;a collection circuit comprising N paths connected to an antenna, and comprising a modulator of an incident signal;a beam-forming network connecting (M+1) first ports to N second ports connected to one path, M first ports being connected to the optical beams and a control port connected to the other ports so that a maximum optical intensity on the control port corresponds to phased signals on the N second ports.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. An optical reception device, the optical reception device receiving a signal from a phased antenna array, the phased antenna array including N elementary antennas, each elementary antenna emitting a signal, each signal having a phase and an amplitude, N being an integer greater than 1, the reception device including:
a light source generating an optical carrier at a reference frequency and M phased optical beams relative to a replica of the optical carrier and which are frequency-shifted relative to the reference frequency, M being an integer greater than 1,
a collection circuit for the signals from the N elementary antennas, the collection circuit including N paths each connected to a respective elementary antenna, each path including a modulator modulating at least one of the phase and the amplitude of an incident signal according to a modulation,
a beam-forming network connecting M+1 first ports to N second ports, each second ports being connected to a respective path of the N paths, the M+1 first ports comprising:
M first ports being connected respectively to one of the M phased optical beams, and
a first port not connected to one of the M phased optical beams, the first port being a control port, the control port being connected to the M first ports so that a maximum optical intensity on the control port corresponds to phased signals on the N second ports,

a photodiode connected to the control port and measuring an optical intensity of a signal of the control port at the reference frequency, and
a controller controlling the modulation of each modulator as a function of the optical intensity measured by the photodiode.

2. The optical reception device according to claim 1 , wherein the collection circuit includes two additional paths in addition to the N paths, one of the additional paths being supplied by the optical carrier and the other path of the additional paths supplying the light source with a replica of the optical carrier.

3. The optical reception device according to claim 1 , wherein the controller controls the modulation of each modulator as a function of the optical intensity measured by the photodiode using a technique chosen from a group made up of a gradient descent algorithm, a Nelder-Mead algorithm, and a frequency marking technique.

4. The optical reception device according to claim 1 , wherein the beam-forming network is a Blass, or Butler, or Nolen matrix.

5. The optical reception device according to claim 1 , wherein the collection circuit includes multi-core fibers.

6. The optical reception device according to claim 1 , wherein each path of the collection circuit includes an optical filter eliminating a sideband.

7. The optical reception device according to claim 1 , wherein the light source includes two phase-locked lasers.

8. The optical reception device according to claim 1 , wherein the optical reception device includes a first part including the light source and the photodiode and a second part including the beam-forming network, the first part being made from Indium Phosphide (InP) and the second part being made from Silicon Nitride (SiN) or sub strate-on-insulator.

9. An antenna system including:
an optical reception device according to claim 1 , and
a phased antenna array, the phased antenna array including the N elementary antennas.

10. The antenna system according to claim 9 , the antenna system further including an optical emission device for controlling the phased antenna array, the emission device including:
a light source generating an optical carrier at a reference frequency and M phased optical beams relative to a replica of the optical carrier and which are frequency-shifted relative to the reference frequency, and
a beam-forming network connecting M first ports to the N second ports, each first port respectively being connected to one of the M optical beams generated by the light source and each second port generating a control signal of one of the N elementary antennas.

11. The antenna system according to claim 10 , wherein the light source of the emission device comprises two emission sub-sources each emitting a light wave with a first frequency gap, the light source of the reception device comprising two reception sub-sources each emitting a light wave with a second frequency gap, the first and the second frequency gaps being identical.

Assignees

• Thales Sa

Inventors

• Bourderionnet Jérome
• Feugnet Gilles
• Brignon Arnaud

Classifications

• H04B10/2575 Primary

  Radio-over-fibre, e.g. radio frequency signal modulated onto an optical carrier · CPC title

• H01Q3/2676 Primary

  Optically controlled phased array · CPC title