Photonic delay line architecture using MEMS based photonic switch

Abstract

Photonic true time delay is very important for phased array antenna applications. The conventional photonic delay line architectures have very high insertion loss. Therefore, the deployment of these photonic delay lines for phased array antennas is not cost effective. In this paper, we will review and compare the performance of different fiber optic photonic delay line architectures. To explore the application of MEMS mirror for photonic true time delay, a multi-base photonic delay line architecture is employed because this architecture has the potential to exhibit ultra-low loss for large binary bit photonic delay. Approaches to implement this photonic delay line architecture based on optical MEMS mirror technology have been proposed and theoretically analyzed. The proposed photonic delay line approaches may provide an ultra-low loss, module, low cost, and deployable photonic delay line for phased array beam forming applications.