Using of microwave photonic transversal filter for broadband signal direction estimation in microwave photonic beamforming system for linear phased array antennas

Abstract

An approach is considered to estimate direction of arrival of broadband microwave signals in linear phased array antenna with photonic beamforming system by using additional subsystem – microwave photonic filter. The frequencies of the notches in the spectrum of broadband signal at the microwave photonic transversal filter output allow to measure mutual delay between signals from two antenna array elements, and thus providing estimation of the signal arrival angle . Architecture of the constructed transversal filter is based on the components of two analog fiber-optic links being a part of antenna array photonic beamforming system. Some shown results of test measurements of microwave photonic transversal filter characteristics prove out an operability of the technique.