True Time Delay Research Articles

3-D Hybrid Beamforming for Terahertz Broadband Communication System With Beam Squint

In this paper, the three-dimensioned (3D) hybrid beamforming is designed for the terahertz (THz) based broadband broadcasting communication system with beam squint. Specifically, the full-dimensional THz massive multiple input multiple output (M-MIMO) channel model and the array gain of the uniform planar array (UPA) are first analyzed in the context of the beam squint effect. Then, a 3D hybrid beamforming architecture is proposed by leveraging two-tier true time delay (TTD), which is able to combat the beam squint effect from the horizontal and vertical directions. To further reduce hardware cost and power consumption, a low-cost 3D hybrid beamforming architecture with a two-tier TTD and phase shifter combination (TPC) is designed. Simulation results are shown that the performance of the proposed 3D hybrid beamforming architectures is capable of approaching that of the full-digital beamforming counterpart in the face of beam squint, despite relying on reduced implementation cost.

포토닉스 기반 송수신기 연동 광대역 능동위상배열 시스템

This paper describes the development of a wide-band active array system with a photonics-based optical transceiver module (OTM) and measurement results of Tx/Rx beam characteristics using near-field measurements. The proposed transceiver consists of an RF transceiver module and an OTM. The RF transceiver module was designed as a 2×8 array using a microstrip dipole antenna. The OTM performs frequency up/down conversion using an optical modulator and has four Rx channels of A/B/C/D for mono-pulse angle extraction. The transmit and receive modules include a true-time delay to electronically steer the wide-band beam over an azimuth angle of ± 20°. The Tx/Rx beam pattern is measured at a near-field measurement facility. The beam steering error is less than 0.9° over the ±20° azimuth angle in the wide Ku-band. In addition, the monopulse slope is obtained from the Rx 4 optic array, and the function of the monopulse calibration is verified using outdoor measurements.

Time Jitter Analysis of an Optical Signal Based on Gated On-Off Optical Sampling and Dual-Dirac Modeling

A time jitter analysis method for an optical signal based on gated on-off optical sampling and dual-Dirac modeling is proposed and demonstrated experimentally. The optical signal under test is firstly sampled by an optical sampling pulse train generated through the gating on-off modulation of a Mach–Zehnder modulator (MZM). The sampled pulse is then broadened using optical true-time delay and electrical low-pass filtering to reduce its bandwidth to match the sample rate of a low-speed electrical analog-to-digital converter (ADC), which is used to quantify the sampled pulse. An eye diagram is obtained from the quantified data and used to plot a time jitter histogram. Finally, the dual-Dirac model is introduced to analyze the time jitter histogram to obtain the total jitter (TJ), including the deterministic jitter (DJ) and random jitter (RJ). In the experiment, a 19.05 ps TJ, including a 13.20 ps DJ and a 5.85 ps RJ, is measured for a 2.5 GHz optical signal using the proposed time jitter analysis method. The results agree well with those measured with a commercial real-time oscilloscope.

The Design of a Novel 2-42 GHz MEMS True-Time Delay Network for Wideband Phased Array Systems.

This article presents the design method of a compact MEMS switched-line true-time delay line (TTDL) network over a wide frequency range extending from 2 to 42 GHz using TTDL units. The TTDL units, namely the cascading radio frequency micro-electromechanical system (RF MEMS) switches and GCPW, were employed in the proposed TTDL network to improve the delay-bandwidth product (DBW) while maintaining its compact size and low delay variation (DV). For comparison, a theoretical analysis of the RF MEMS switch was performed while observing the switch performance with various top electrodes. The MEMS TTDL network has a compact size of 5 mm × 5 mm, with a maximum delay of 200 ps and a minimum of 30 ps. The maximum insertion loss of 9 states is 10 dB, and the in/out return loss is better than 20 dB across 2-42 GHz. The group delay variations are within ±2.5% for all the delay states over the operating frequency range. To the best of our knowledge, the proposed TTDL network obtains the most control bits among the TTDL networks offered to date.

Variational Bayesian Inference Time Delay Estimation for Passive Sonars

In passive sonars, distance and depth estimation of underwater targets is often limited by the accuracy of time delay estimations. The estimation accuracy of the existing methods of time delay estimation is limited by the uniform discrete grid (signal sampling rate). When a true time delay is out of the grid, the estimation accuracy deteriorates due to the mismatch between the real-time delay and the discrete grid. This paper proposes a new method for time delay estimation, which realizes the time delay estimation under the framework of variational Bayesian inference. The proposed method is grid-less, that is, continuous in the time domain. Unlike the popular grid-less compressive time delay estimation method, this method does not require parameter adjustment, and can automatically estimate the number of time delays, noise variance, and amplitude variance. The simulation results showed that the performance of the proposed method was superior to the reference state-of-the-art time delay estimation methods.

Variable optical true-time delay line breaking bandwidth-delay constraints.

Continuously variable true-time optical delay lines are typically subject to a constraint of the bandwidth-delay product, limiting their use in several applications. In this Letter, we propose an integrated topology that breaks the bandwidth-delay product limit. The device is based on multiple Mach-Zehnder Interferometers (MZIs) arranged in parallel, providing easier control and a larger bandwidth compared to ring resonator-based solutions. The functionality of this architecture is demonstrated with a 4-stage delay line by performing measurements in both the time and frequency domains. The delay line introduces a delay of 90 ps over a bandwidth of more than 22 GHz with a negligible group delay distortion, operates on a wavelength range of about 60 nm, and is scalable to a higher number of MZI stages.

A PVT resilient true‐time delay cell

AbstractA true‐time delay (TTD) cell in TSMC 0.18 μm CMOS technology for 1–5 GHz applications is presented. Process variations, ageing effects, field variations, and other non‐idealities have some impacts on the TTD cell's devices. One of the vulnerable specifications of TTD cells is their delay variation. While the TTD cell works in a delay line, the cell must have a constant and robust delay in the frequency band. For this matter, the body bias technique is presented and applied to the inductor‐less TTD cell. With this technique, the threshold voltage can be manipulated intentionally. So, any variation in this voltage can be compensated with the body biasing of transistors. The simulation results show the TTD cell's robust performance against non‐idealities, while delay variation improves more than 3× times in the frequency band of interest. This TTD cell provides a 50.95 pS delay with only 2% variation, while S11 and S22 parameters are lower than −10 dB in the 1–5 GHz frequency band. IIP3 of the TTD cell is about 2.7 dBm, and the power consumption is 20.5 mW.

Chip-Based Brillouin Processing for Microwave Photonic Phased Array Antennas

In this review paper, we provide perspectives on the implementation of high-performance, wideband, chip-based Brillouin microwave photonic processing subsystems for use in phased array antennas that require processing at every antenna element. We review recent advances in chip-scale Brillouin microwave photonic signal processing systems, including reconfigurable filters, frequency converters, tunable phase shifters, true time delays and microwave sources, which are key functionalities for phased array antennas. We discuss a roadmap for developments of Brillouin-based microwave photonic processors to reach the required performance and compact footprint for implementation in future dynamically reconfigurable phased array antenna systems.

SAR Imaging in Frequency Scan Mode: System Optimization and Potentials for Data Volume Reduction

Frequency scanning (FScan) is an innovative acquisition mode for synthetic aperture radar (SAR) systems. The method is based on the frequency-dependent beam pointing capabilities of phased array antennas, artificially increased via the combined use of true time delays and phase shifters within the array antenna. By this, typical limitations of conventional SAR systems in terms of achievable swath width and azimuth resolution can be mitigated, and so a wide swath can be imaged maintaining a fine azimuthal resolution. In the first part of the article, we introduce the theoretical concept, which is necessary to evaluate the reduced echo window length (EWL) with respect to equivalent stripmap data and the implications for the transmit pulse characterization. An FScan sensor flying in a TerraSAR-X-like orbit is shown to be capable of imaging an 80-km wide swath with 1-m azimuth resolution. The resulting time–frequency properties of the recorded raw data make the traditional SAR data compression algorithms such as block-adaptive quantization (BAQ) highly inefficient in this case. Therefore, the second part of the article investigates dedicated quantization methods for efficient data volume reduction in FScan systems. Different solutions are investigated and evaluated through simulations. Various transformations of the raw data have been exploited to optimize the encoding process, including deramping, fast Fourier transform (FFT), and blockwise approaches. Compared with standard BAQ in the time domain, the suggested data compression methods significantly improve the resulting signal-to-quantization noise ratio, allowing for the reduction in the overall data volume by about 60% for the considered system scenario, while maintaining robustness in the presence of inhomogeneous scene characteristics at the cost of a modest complexity increase for its on-board implementation.

Low-Temperature Superconductor rf-SQUIDs-Based Fully Integrated Reflective-Type Analog Phase Shifter for Quantum Applications

This article presents a low-temperature superconductor (LTS)-based microwave phase shifter. The device utilizes a superconducting hybrid coupler monolithically integrated with two tunable reflective loads. An array of radio frequency superconducting quantum interference devices (rf-SQUIDs) is used to achieve inductive tuning in reflective loads, resulting in a broadband true time delay phase shift. The rf-SQUIDs are current controlled using an on-chip dc bias circuitry. The proof-of-concept fabricated device provides excellent RF performance in the <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">${X}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> - and Ku -band with a phase shift of 49° at 10 GHz and 67° at 15 GHz. The insertion loss is < 1.5 dB for the entire range from 8 to 18 GHz. The methods to further improve the obtained phase shift are discussed. The overall device has a chip footprint of 0.6 mm2 and is fabricated using MIT-Lincoln Lab (MIT-LL) SFQ5ee eight-layer Niobium (Nb)-based superconducting fabrication process.

High accurate self-calibration of photonic integrated circuit using lossless thermo-optic phase shifters.

The accurate calibration of large-scale switch networks is critical for integrated photonics, in which the integrated optical true time delay chip is typical. In this work, a novel self-calibration method without extra testing ports is proposed by introducing lossless thermo-optic phase shifters instead to calibrate the network. As a demonstration, a 5-bit delay line based on silicon nitride is fabricated and calibrated. The extinction ratio of all the switches is greater than 30.9 dB at the cross and bar states. Using this method, the 5-bit optical delay line which can be tuned in a range of 118.53 ps and reach a low delay time deviation less than ±0.4 ps.

Least-Squares Equalizer Demonstrations Using a Full-Digital Bandwidth Sub-Nyquist-Sampled Wideband Beamformer on an RFSoC

The radio frequency system-on-a-chip (RFSoC) has recently become a viable candidate for completely replacing traditional analog and digital front ends, facilitating the development of wideband phased-array systems where the modern-day RFSoC takes the comprehensive, dominate role in the architecture of the array. Wideband phased-array systems require high-fidelity compensation techniques capable of correcting imbalanced and dispersive channel effects for effective beamforming. This article provides solutions to these challenges by designing a wideband equalizer for a sub-Nyquist-sampled 1.6-GHz <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">S</i> -band phased-array system implemented on a Xilinx 8-channel RFSoC, whose analog-to-digital converters (ADC) operate at 4 gigasamples per second. In brief, an RFSoC is a unique, state-of-the-art, highly integrated device that incorporates a field programmable gate array, high-speed ADCs and digital-to-analog converters with a system-on-a-chip architecture on a single monolithic device. By definition, true time delay beamsteering can be implemented digitally via a combination of integer-sample delays and fractional-sample delay finite impulse response filters. By modifying the filter structure of the fractional-sample delay filter bank to support complex coefficients, channel equalization is integrated with fractional-sample delay filters to mitigate undesired channel effects. For the first time, to the best of our knowledge, this article has developed an equalizer design methodology for an uncalibrated 8-element RFSoC-based sub-Nyquist-sampled wideband beamformer. Lab measurements confirm efficacy.

On-Chip Slow-Light SiN Bragg Grating Waveguides

Si photonic foundry fabricated cascaded and continuous spiral shaped silicon nitride (SiN) waveguides that incorporate Bragg grating structures were explored to produce an on-chip true-time delay line. A time-domain measurement method was used to characterize the delay time of the grating waveguides near their photonic band edge where it exhibits the strongest slow light effect. The highest group index extracted from cascaded SiN grating waveguides is 19.7 corresponding to a total delay time of 5.48 ns in a full length of 12.49 cm that consumes a surface area of 2.66 mm <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sup> . A continuous spiral SiN grating waveguide was also fabricated which produces a delay time of 3.78 ns in a length of 5.47 cm with a surface area consumption of 0.88 mm <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sup> .

DNN Beamforming for LEO Satellite Communication at Sub-THz Bands

The 6G communication system will be designed at sub-THz frequencies due to increasing demand in data rates, emerging new applications and advanced communication technologies. These high-performing systems will heavily rely on artificial intelligence (AI) for efficient and robust design of transceivers. In this work, we propose a deep neural network (DNN) beamformer that will replace the use of phase shifters for a massive array of antenna elements employed at the ground station for wideband LEO satellite communication at sub-THz bands. We show that the signal processing algorithm employed using DNN is capable to match the performance of a true-time delay beamformer as the angle of arrival of the received wideband signal at the ground station is changing due to rapid movement of the LEO satellite. The implementation of DNN beamformer will be able to reduce the cost of receiver and provide a way for the efficient and compact design of the massive array beamforming for wideband LEO satellite applications.

2-D beamforming system based on photonic lantern and few-mode fiber Bragg grating

In this paper, a 2-D beamforming system based on the photonic lantern (PL) and few-mode fiber Bragg grating (FM-FBG) with a 3 × 3 antenna array is proposed. The FM-FBG is produced by the femtosecond laser point-by-point method, which is flexible and simple; moreover, the 2-D time delay regulation can be realized with different positions of FM-FBG by a single wavelength and single-stage optical true time delay (OTTD) modules to complete the 2-D beam scanning, which reduces the system cost, complexity and simplifies the system structure. The effects of different types of PLs on the system are investigated with the results that the channel amplitude dither of the 2-D beamforming system using non-mode-selective PLs is less than 1.5 dB, and the main lobe beamwidth and sidelobe level are smaller than those of the mode-selective PL system. In addition, the effect of the polarization state of optical on the gain of the system is studied, and the experiment results show that the overall gain of the system is improved by 2.27 dB when we adjust the optical polarization state to the optimum. Under this best-adjusted polarization state, we construct a 2-D beamforming system based on the non-mode-selective PL with time delay steps of (12 ps, 10 ps), and the elevation and azimuth angles are achieved by switching the operating state of the optical switch for the scan ranges of 0°–60° and 0°–35°, respectively.

Hybrid Beamforming for Terahertz Wireless Communications with Beam Squint: A Survey

Benefiting from the ultra-wide bandwidth, terahertz (THz) communication is considered one of the core technologies of the 6G mobile communication. However, high path loss is a severe issue for THz band, which needs to be solved by the ultra-massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) technology. For the sake of reducing the hardware cost and power comsumption, the hybrid beamforming technology is required, which has been adopted in the 5G communication. In the hybrid beamforming for the THz wideband system, the enormous antenna and ultra-wide bandwidth cause the spatial- and frequency-wideband effect, resulting in acute beam squint. Eliminating beam squint is the key to the engineering realization of ultra massive MIMO for the THz band. To circumvent this issue, this paper presents a comprehensive overview of the hybrid beamforming technology including the channel model, the traditional phase shifter based and the true time delay based architectures, the 3D hybrid beamforming for the uniform planar array. Finally, multiple significant open issues and potential challenges are pointed out and elaborated.

Design of f-SCAN Acquisition Mode for Synthetic Aperture Radar

This paper presents the design and processing of the SAR acquisition technique named frequency scanning (f-SCAN), aimed to obtain high sensitivity to targets with low backscattering and to improve the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) in wide-swath systems. The f-SCAN is an interesting alternative to the scanning on receive method (SCORE), which needs multiple phase centres achieved using the digital beam forming (DBF) technique. f-SCAN requires less hardware complexity than SCORE; at the same time, it improves the sidelobes and ambiguities’ suppression. The elements used in f-SCAN to generate the pencil beam are the true time delay lines (TTDLs) and the phase shifters (PSs). The general methodology to design an f-SCAN spaceborne SAR high-resolution wide-swath (HRWS) system is introduced; emphasis is put on the mathematical definition of the timing parameters and on a novel method of using TTDLs to achieve the full spanning of wide swaths. The processing of f-SCAN data is also considered: we introduce a novel algorithm to limit the data volume and to guarantee an almost invariant slant range impulse response function (IRF) by removing spectral distortions. Eventually, new definitions, specific for f-SCAN, of the well-known SAR performance parameters, are provided. Simulation results and performances are presented. The advantages and disadvantages with respect to SCORE are discussed using the design of a real case system.

Air-Filled SIW Remote Antenna Unit With True Time Delay Optical Beamforming for mmWave-Over-Fiber Systems

A low-complexity and efficient mmWave-over-fiber remote antenna unit (RAU) is proposed for broadband transmission and wide-angle squint-free beam steering in the full [26.5–29.5] GHz n257 5G band. It leverages an optical beamforming network (OBFN), implemented on a silicon photonics integrated circuit, and a broadband optically enabled 1x4 uniform linear array (ULA). The antenna elements (AEs) of the ULA are implemented in air-filled substrate-integrated-waveguide technology. They adopt an improved aperture-coupled feeding scheme to achieve high efficiency, high isolation and minimal back radiation over a broad frequency band. Each AE is compactly integrated and co-optimized with a dedicated opto-electrical transmit chain, maximizing the RAU’s performance, including beamforming flexibility and energy efficiency, while minimizing its size. The separately packaged OBFN implements true-time-delay beamforming by means of four switchable optical delay lines that are capable of discretely tuning the delay difference between AEs with a resolution of 1.6 ps, up to a maximum delay of 49.6 ps to fully exploit the ULA’s full grating-lobe-free scan range. The measured AEs are excellently matched in the [25.1–30.75] GHz band, exhibit high isolation ( <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$ &gt;$</tex-math></inline-formula> 15 dB) in the operating band, and feature a stable peak gain of 6.8 <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\pm$</tex-math></inline-formula> 0.72 dBi with a beamwidth of at least 95 <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$^\circ$</tex-math></inline-formula> . Additionally, optical beamforming was successfully demonstrated by steering the RAU’s beam towards angles up to 51.8 <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$^\circ$</tex-math></inline-formula> without grating lobes. The optically enabled 1 × 4 ULA successfully establishes a 64-QAM wireless communication link at 2.2 Gbaud (13.2 Gbps) while beam steering up to 50 <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$ ^\circ$</tex-math></inline-formula> with an error vector magnitude below 7.6%.

Optical Generation and Transmission of mmWave Signals in 5G ERA: Experimental Evaluation Paradigm

We demonstrate the generation, of a mmWave signal via the injection of an optical frequency comb (OFC) into an integrated tunable dual distributed Bragg reflector (DBR) laser as well as the fiber transmission and the processing of this signal by an optical beamforming network (OBFN). The dual DBR laser is based on a hybrid indium phosphide (InP) – polymer photonic integrated circuit (PIC). Two different cases have been examined in which the microwave signal is centered around 39 GHz and 60 GHz respectively, carrying quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) formats at 0.5 Gbaud. In this proof-of-concept scenario, the OBFN consists of two optical paths, where the relative true time delay is induced by an optical delay line (ODL). Extensive comparison between the back-to-back (B2B) case and scenarios with transmission over 25 km of standard single-mode fiber (SSMF) has been made using the error-vector magnitude (EVM) and the bit-error ratio (BER) as evaluation criteria. In all cases, error-free transmission was suggested for all QPSK signals, whereas a worst-case EVM of 11.8% was observed for 16-QAM transmission, successfully showcasing the concept’s potential. The generated microwave signal’s frequency can be set arbitrarily high, provided that high-speed photodetection equipment is available for the detection and down-conversion of the signal. Extension to higher antenna elements (AEs) numbers is straight-forward, relying only on the number of available photodetectors.

Implicit Periodic Strong Reflection Points of UWB Hilbert Fractal Time Delay Lines and the Performance Improvements

The serpentine delay line (SDL) is commonly used as one kind of typical true time delay lines (TDLs) with periodic strong reflection points (SRPs). However, the Hilbert fractal curve delay lines (HFCDLs), with the same circuit area and the same spacing between the adjacent segment lines, are proven to have quite different SRPs with improved performance. An analytic analysis model is used to investigate the SRPs of the two-order and three-order HFCDLs, respectively, in which the structure symmetry is fully considered to make the relevant adjacent structure equivalent to a pair of parallel dual lines. Thus, the accumulated far-end crosstalk (FEXT) is derived in the HFCDLs, and the implicit periodic SRPs are revealed. Furthermore, the iterated two-order and three-order HFCDLs are investigated to validate the analysis model. Subsequently, the periodically loaded transmission line (PLTL) with and without strategic discontinuous structured guard lines (DSGLs) is, respectively, utilized in the three-order and two-order HFCDLs, and thus, the proposed structures possess better wideband cancelation of the FEXT accordingly. In the ultrawideband (UWB) range of dc–51 GHz, the typical return loss (RL) is less than 20 dB for the proposed two-order HFCDL and less than 15 dB for the proposed three-order HFCDL. Meanwhile, the fluctuations are eliminated in the group delay (GD) for the proposed two-order HFCDL. For the proposed three-order HFCDL, the delay fluctuations are observed at the high end of the UWB due to the enhanced near-end crosstalk (NEXT), while the delay fluctuations less than 72.2 ps are still obtained in the range of dc–35 GHz.