Array-Beamspace Mapping for Planar Two-Dimensional Beam-Forming

As sixth-generation (6G) communication systems manifest at carrier frequencies well into the millimeter-wave (mmW) spectrum, ability of conventional digital beamforming techniques to handle beam-bandwidth product is increasingly stressed. Microwave photonic has been presented as a solution this problem by up-converting sampled RF field distribution an optical for analog beam-space processing, but date relied upon fiber arrays with same dimensionality array, i.e. two-dimensional array requires and three-dimensional processor perform Fourier transform required beamforming. To address problem, we present approach mmW wherein phase information preserved through one-dimensional leveraging grating lobes in response. This carries several benefits, primarily enabler integrated circuits RF-photonic beamforming, carrying it footprint reduction more than ten thousand times. Furthermore, efficiency increased sources near limits field-of-view; improvements throughput power such cases are much double. Theory, simulations, experimental results form images videos validate nineteen-element hexagonally-distributed phased array.