The research team at the Universitat Politècnica de València's ITEAM Institute announced that it has successfully developed a broadband radio frequency (RF) photonic phase shifter. The innovative device has been designed to allow tuning and has been developed on a single semiconductor element which will enable cheaper production costs. Additionally, the device will enable substantial savings in power consumption of close to 80 percent.
Optical phase shifters for RF signals are used for installing composite broadband telecommunication systems employing both fiber optic and radio transmission. Additionally, optical phase shifters are critical to convergence between networks, as this provides the required access to broadband applications regardless of the location and time. The use of optical phase shifters can enable access to mobile Internet and can be alternatively used to shift the course of radar and satellite antennas.
In a release, José Capmany, Director of the UPV's ITEAM said that "The relevance of this contribution is twofold. First, a 75 percent reduction -- in comparison with previous designs -- in the number of components needed will make it possible to save some of the space that the phase shifter occupies when it is integrated into a chip, and, consequently, to save in the production cost too. Moreover, reducing the number of active elements from 5 to 1 means a saving in energy consumption of up to 80 percent.”
Designed for deployment over an extensive range of applications, the use of optical phase shifters is essential to radar antennas, terrestrial satellites, and microwave radio link systems, RF applications for vehicles and for Ultra Wide Band communications. The phase shifters when used for these applications can help in enhancing information transmission which effectively brings down congestion. Furthermore, it contributes to overall improvement in the communication systems performance.
Salvador Sales, an ITEAM researcher said that, "Traditional phase shifters, based on microwave technologies, are limited in bandwidth and the possibility of tuning is also limited. By using photonic technology instead, we have been able to overcome both limitations.”
Prof. Capmany's team and his colleagues from the Technical University of Denmark completed work on the first phase shifter with record bandwidth (50 GHz) sometime last year. A replication in the performance of the phase shifter which has been enhanced to enable savings in components and power consumption has now been achieved.
Calvin Azuri is a contributing editor for TMCnet. To read more of Calvin’s articles, please visit his columnist page.Edited by
Rich Steeves
