60 GHz-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 photo- diodes 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 in- creasing 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 ob-Tained results in this paper will be useful for designing future radio access networks based on RoF transmission technology.