F-11.

2
Optically Controlled Millimeter Wave Antenna

George W. Webb, Wayne Vernon, Mario S. Sanchez, Stephen C. Rose*, and Susan Angello

Innova Laboratories, Inc.

6370 Lusk Blvd., F l l l
San Diego, CA 92121 USA
Tel: (619) 452-8760 Fax: (619) 452-0478 e-mail: gwwebb@innova-labs.com

Abstract - We have developed an optically- transmitted. The wafer, modified by light in

controlled, millimeter wave (MMW) scanning
antenna. A computer controlled light source
photo-injects a spatially varying plasma into a
photo-conducting wafer. The light-modified
wafer forms MMW beams from 20 to 100
GHz and scans them +30° in two-dimensions.
Beam scan rates are greater than 1000 beams
per second with excellent beam control in
software. Scanning antennas based on this
approach promise to be fast, inexpensive, and
easily controlled.
Introduction
Scanning antennas are required for
many communication and radar applications.
Mechanically scanned antennas are often
slower than desired while electronically
scanned antennas, which employ thousands of
phase shifters, are too expensive. For these
reasons, alternative scanning methods have
been of recent interest [l-71. We have been
developing a non-mechanical MMW scanning
this way, can be made to diffract incident
radiation into a beam which can be scanned.
Because the wafer responds rapidly to changes
in optical injection, it is possible to rapidly
change the Fresnel diffractive conditions and
thus rapidly change the beam direction.
Fresnel Zone Plates
It is well known that Fresnel zone
plates work by blocking radiation [8]. Figure 1
shows MMW rays from a source S passing
through an aperture in an opaque screen to a
detection point P. The amplitude of the
radiation arriving at P can be calculated in the
scalar amplitude approximation by solving the
Fresnel - Kirchhoff formula, equation 1 [8].
SOURCE s
normal

antenna which employs a light-modulated

photoconducting antenna [3-4, 71. Antennas
based on our approach promise to be fast and
inexpensive.
The technique is based upon a transient
Fresnel zone plate approach in which a Figure 1. Geometry for Fresnel-Kirchhoff
spatially varying density of charge carriers is solution of integrated amplitude between
created by optical injection of plasma into a source S and detection point P.
semiconductor or photoconductor wafer. The
photo-injected charge carriers, electrons and/or
holes, alter the index of refraction of the wafer
locally, particularly the imaginary part of the
index, and thereby attenuate and reflect In general, rays arriving at P have a
incident electromagnetic radiation. Conversely, relative phase which depends on the point
with suitable choice of parameters, the un- where they went through the aperture. The
illuminated parts of the semiconductor allow phase is described by the exponential in the
the incident electromagnetic waves to be Fresnel - Kirchhoff relation and depends on the

0-7803-5558-X/Y9/$10.0001999 IEEE 275 MWP'YY Digest

positions of S and of P. Figure 2a shows the
relative phase ut P of a ray plotted with a gray
scale on the plane of the aperture at the point
where the ray passed through the aperture.
Here S and P have been chosen to be collinear
with the aperture.
In Figure 2a, those rays with phase
represented from white to gray are taken to be
in-phase. Conversely, those rays with phase
from gray to black are out-of-phase. If the out-
of-phase rays were blocked, then the only rays
arriving at S would be in-phase and a large
increase in intensity at S would result.
DETECTOR 0 DEGREES OFF AXIS
a)
DETECTOR 30 DEGREES OFF AXIS
Figure 2. Gray scale plot of phase at
detection point plotted on plane of aperture
where ray went through aperture; source at
110 mm from 146 mm effective diameter
aperture, distant detector, 94 GHz
radiation. a) Detector 0" off axis, b)
Detector 30"off axis.
The relative phase distribution displays
the relative symmetry of S, P, and the aperture.
In particular, the relative phase depends on the
angle that P makes with the axis of the
aperture. If the relative position of P is moved
off-axis, then the distribution of relative phase
at P is changed. Figure 2b shows the phase
276
distribution when P is moved to 30" off-axis,
all other parameters remaining the same.
Evidently, to send a beam to this direction
requires that a different ray distribution must
be blocked.
We have solved equation 1 assuming
that the out of phase rays shown as gray to
black to gray in Figure 2 are blocked. Phase
distributions calculated for beams directed to
0", loo, 20", and 30" were calculated and the
power at P plotted in Figure 3. For these
simulations a MMW feed function with
gaussian taper was assumed. Main lobe power
decreases by about 1 dB to 30", peak to side
lobe ratio is about 20 dB, and beam width is
1.5".
Simulation for 0, 10,20, and 30 deg 94 GHZ Beams
-7s
35 -25 -15 4 5 IS 25 35
Angle (de@
Figure 3. Solution of Fresnel-Kirchhoff
equation. A gaussian feed is 110 mm from
146 mm diameter aperture.
Figures 2 and 3 illustrate that to form a
MMW beam in a specific direction, a plasma
must be selectively injected into a
photoconductor. In order to send the beam in a
new direction, it must be possible to change
the light pattern and thus the spatial
distribution of the plasma. Therefore, we wish
to integrate a photoconducting material with a
light source which has a high degree of
controllability.
Experimental Details
We have investigated a variety of
materials for the photoconductor. Here,
experimental results are given for Si wafers
with dark resistivity in the range 1000 a-crn,
diameter of 150 mm, and thickness of 0.7 111111.
For photo-injection, light of wavelength below lobe power decreases by 3.2 dB at 20" and by
the band gap is used. A programmable light almost 7 dB at 30".
array (PLA) projects a light pattern onto the H-Plane, Transmitting Antenna,94 GHz, 1000 Hz Hop Rate
back of the wafer. A front feed transmits
I I I I
MMW through the wafer which are reflected at
the back of the wafer by a MMW reflector that
is transparent to the light array [7]. In this way
the MMW make a double pass through the
wafer.
Several light arrays and drive
electronics have been developed. Figure 4
displays a PLA consisting of 1285 LEDs 45
having a peak LED output at 0.88 p. The light
+U
array is controlled by a PC through a custom -35 -2j -15 + 5 15 25 35
Beam Scan Amle [degrees)
electronic interface which can switch the lights
on/off at the maximum rate of 140 MHZ
(140M lightshec.) The maximum rate is thus Figure 5. H-plane scans from -30" to 30"
80K frames per second, however the overall with the relative angle vaned between
scan rate is limited by the properties of the antenna and detector using a 2335 PLA. A
photoconductingmaterial to a few kHz. gaussian feed is 110 mm from 146 mm
diameter aperture. The beam is scanned at
1000 Hz.
Two dimensional scan data at 94 GHz
are shown in Figure 6. The detector was co-
linear with the antenna axis. Here the beam is
hopped on a 30" x 30 " square grid with a 1"
grid spacing at a rate of 1000 hopshecond.
The main lobe is clearly evident when the beam
is directed at the detector, as are the side lobes
and nulls when the light pattern is changed to
direct the beam off-axis.
2D Scan, Detector at (Oo,Oo),
94 G H t , 1000 Hz Hop Rate
Figure 4. Programmable light array 150
mm diameter with 1285 LEDs. PLAs up to
2335 LEDs have been tested.

Results
Beam profile data with a 2335 PLA and
94 GHz are shown in Figure 5. H-plane beam
scans were used with the antenna configured as
a transmitter and a remote detector. There are
four separate beam scans with the detector
moved off-axis to 0", lo", 20", and 30" and the
beam scanned by software. Peak to side lobe
ratio is about 15 dB for the strongest well Figure 6. 94 GHz beam scanned on 30" x
separated lobe and beam width is 1.9". Main 30" square grid with 1"grid spacing at 1000
Hz using 2335 PLA. Detector at (O",O").

277

Discussion
The ability to form a narrow MMW
beam in a solid state scanner by using a photo-
injected plasma to block the out-of-phase rays
is shown. By controlling which rays are
blocked, the beam can be rapidly re-formed in
different directions. In other experiments,
reciprocity has been demonstrated showing
that the antenna works as well as a receiver as
a transmitter and that antenna operation is
extended down to 20 GHz [7].
It is useful to compare the off-axis
antenna performance of Figure 5 with the
simulations of Figure 3. It is seen that the
measured off-axis beam power declines more
than predicted. As can be seen in Figure 2,
when the beam is scanned off-axis the phase
features become finer. Therefore, one likely
reason for the decline is limitations in the
ability of the present PLA to produce the exact
light pattern required due to the finite LED
spacing. A second likely reason is di€fusion of
plasma from lighted into unlighted regions.
To estimate maximum efficiency, we
note that approximately 50% of the rays are
blocked compared to the full aperture. In
addition, the remaining in-phase rays have a
distribution of phases over 180”compared to a
fixed parabolic reflector or a phased array with
perfect control over phase. From these
considerations, we estimate that the maximum
efficiency is approximately -10 dB, as presently
configured. The advantage, however, is the
ability to rapidly steer the beam over a fixed
reflector, and at much lower cost than a phased
array.
* Now at Stanford University
Acknowledgements
We thank Jennifer Kerns, Ron
Skatvold, and Martin Ostenvalder for
discussions and the U.S. Department of the
Navy for research support under contract no.
Navy Contract No. N68936-95-C-0101.
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278
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