An acoustooptic-phased-array antenna beamformer for multiple simultaneous beam generation

An acoustooptic-phased-array antenna beamformer with N multiple simultaneous beam generation capability is experimentally demonstrated using a single channel acoustooptic device driven by a signal of frequency f/sub C/, and an acoustooptic device with N channels driven by signals with frequencies f/sub C/+f/sub 1/, . . ., f/sub C/+f/sub N/, respectively. f/sub 1/, . . ., f/sub n/, . . ., f/sub N/ control the carrier and phase values of the N independent beam generation signals, n being the beam number. Using f/sub C/=60 MHz, and N=2, 0-2 pi phase control is achieved using f/sub n/=0-460 kHz. A dynamic range of 54.5 dB at 1 MHz and carrier-to-noise of 113.4 dB/Hz at 1 MHz is measured for a 120 MHz carrier. One-dimensional transmit/receive antenna beam scanning can be provided by this system.<>