There are described methods and devices for intra-spacecraft communication in space, the electro-optical device having at least one of transmitting capabilities for converting a first electrical signal into a first optical signal and outputting the first optical signal within a spacecraft, and receiving capabilities for receiving a second optical signal within the spacecraft and converting the second optical signal into a second electrical signal, the electro-optical device having at least one integrated circuit dedicated to at least one of the transmitting capabilities and the receiving capabilities, the at least one integrated circuit configured for operating in an analog mode where configuration voltages for the integrated circuit are provided by analog voltage settings unaffected by radiation.

A beamforming element comprises an imprinting-shifting component configured to imprint an input signal onto a second beam to form an imprinted beam and adjust the optical phase of the imprinted beam; one or more multi-beam optical couplers configured to receive a phase-shifted imprinted beam and a first beam and form an interference beam from the combination thereof; and one or more optical-to-electrical converter components configured to receive an interference beam and generate an electrical signal based thereon that includes the beamforming time delay(s) and is frequency up/down-converted with respect to the input signal.

A method includes defining a Center-of-Radiation Reference for a device under test, the CORR indicating a reference origin of an electromagnetic wave pattern formable with the DUT; determining a 3-dimensional orientation information with respect to the CORR, the 3-dimensional orientation information indicating a direction of the electromagnetic wave pattern; and providing the CORR and the 3-dimensional orientation information to a measurement system.

An optical control type phased array antenna includes: a plurality of antenna elements; a multi-wavelength light source; an optical demultiplexing circuit for separating a plurality of optical signals and local oscillation light from output light of the multi-wavelength light source; optical modulators for generating a plurality of modulated optical signals by modulating the plurality of optical signals with the output signals of the plurality of antenna elements; an optical coupler for multiplexing the plurality of modulated optical signals and the local oscillation light to generate multiplexed light and dividing the multiplexed light into reception optical signals of a plurality of channels; and an optical dispersion compensation circuit for compensating for a phase difference between the plurality of modulated optical signals by performing dispersion compensation on the reception optical signals, respectively.

An optical communications system comprises a first node comprising a phased array transmitter for generating an optical beam and a receiver, and a second node comprising a phase conjugate mirror for returning the optical beam to be detected by the receiver of the first node. The phased array transmitters allow for electronic steering of the beams in a way that is much faster and with a potentially smaller physical footprint than the mechanical systems. The phase conjugate mirrors return the received beams of photons back over the exact path they were sent from the phased array transmitters, ensuring continuity of communication even in the presence of atmospheric turbulence.

A multibeam antenna and method of using the same are described. In one embodiment, the antenna comprises an aperture having a plurality of radio-frequency (RF) radiating antenna elements. The RF radiating antenna elements generate a plurality of beams simultaneously in different directions in response to a first modulation pattern for holographic beamforming applied to the plurality of RF radiating antenna elements to establish all beams of the plurality of beams such that antenna elements of the plurality of RF radiating antenna elements contribute to all beams in the plurality of beams concurrently. The antenna also includes a controller coupled to the aperture to generate the first modulation pattern.

Systems and methods are provided for wide scan phased array fed reflector systems using ring-focus optics to significantly improve the scan volume of such systems. The subject system includes a reflector having a focal plane and a parabolic curvature configured to receive electromagnetic radiation having a first gain and provide reflected electromagnetic radiation having a second gain greater than the first gain that collimates into a focal ring. The subject system includes a feed array having feed elements positioned about the focal ring, in which each feed element is configured to receive the reflected electromagnetic radiation from the reflector and collimate the reflected electromagnetic radiation into a scanned beam for scanning an annular region. In some aspects, the feed array is centered on the focal ring such that at least one feed element overlaps with the focal ring and remaining feed elements are non-overlapping with the focal ring.

It is an object of the present invention a photonic system to perform beamforming of a radio signal received by a phased array antenna with N antenna elements. It provides true-time delay beamforming enabled by tunable optical delay lines (6) with a periodic frequency response.

The present invention provides four key advantages: photonic RF phase shifting; highly-sensitive coherent detection with intrinsic photonic frequency downconversion; phase noise cancellation, since a frequency-shifted optical local oscillator can be derived from a same laser source (1) used to feed electro-optic modulators (5); and the possibility of only requiring a single delay line, shared amongst all tunable optical delay lines. Such set of advantages makes the proposed system extremely attractive for high-end wireless receivers, required for demanding applications such as satellite communication systems and broadband wireless signal transmission.

An optical true time delay (TTD) control device for controllably alters the transit time of an optical beam traveling through the device by using the tip & tilt capability of MEMS MMAs to control the entrance and exit angles to a reflection cavity to coarsely control the path length and transit time and the piston capability to fine tune the path length and transit time. The reflection cavity can be configured in one, two or three dimensions with or without an optically transparent solid medium and using additional MEMS MMAs to provide controllable mirror surfaces within the cavity to enhance dynamic range and tenability. The input MEMS MMA may be “segmented” to re-direct a plurality of channel optical beams from the cavity at the same or different exit angles. The segments may be coated with different AR coatings to provide channel optical beams at different wavelengths.

An antenna having radio-frequency (RF) resonators and methods for fabricating the same are described. In one embodiment, the antenna comprises a physical antenna aperture having an array of antenna elements, where the array of antenna elements includes a plurality of radio-frequency (RF) resonators, with each RF resonator of the plurality of RF resonators having an RF radiating element with a microelectromchanical systems (MEMS) device.