60GHz-Band Photonic-Integrated Array-Antenna and Module for Radio-over-Fiber-Based Beam Forming

Abstract

This paper presents a novel 60 GHz-band photonic-integrated array-antenna and module for radio-over-fiber (RoF)-based beam forming. An integrated photonic array-antennas (IPA), where eight photodiodes and 4×2 arrayed patch-antenna are integrated in a single board, is actually fabricated, and 3.5-Gbit/s QPSK digital signal transmission with beam forming of the IPA is experimentally demonstrated. In addition, a novel 60-GHz compact antenna module is proposed and fabricated for increasing the number of antenna elements and flexibility creating various beam patterns. The feasibility of beam forming operation for the proposed antenna module is confirmed by a 60-GHz RoF transmission experiment. The capability of detecting the mobile terminal direction, which is one of the indispensable functions for actual environment, is also studied. The obtained results in this paper will be useful for designing future radio access networks based on RoF transmission technology.