K-band phased-array antenna system demonstration using substrate guided wave true-time delay

A novel 3-bit optical true-time delay module that can provide 64 time delays ranging from 0 to 443.03 ps is presented. The total inser- tion loss, including the propagation loss and the 1-to-64 fan-out loss is confirmed to be less than 20 dB. The crosstalk among channels is mea- sured to be less than 240 dB. The bandwidth of the fully packaged module is determined to be as high as 539 GHz. This true-time delay module is employed to control an eight-element K-band phased array antenna system. Far-field patterns covering 18 to 26.5 GHz are mea- sured and compared with the simulated results to verify this module's wide instantaneous bandwidth.