An Optical Technique for Simultaneous Beamforming and Cross-Correlation

Abstract

This paper presents a method of greatly simplifying the processing of received signals from antenna arrays through the use of a coherent optical system for signal processing. It is shown that a coherent optical system is ideally suited for carrying out beamforming operations. Several other advantages of coherent optics for this application are also discussed. A major result is a technique for forming several unambiguous beams simultaneously by correlating the signals from two linear arrays. The coherent optics technique permits this operation to be carried out with extreme simplicity.