Title: An optical beam former for smart antennas in mobile broadband communication

Authors: A.P. Kabilan, P. Elizabeth Caroline, X. Susan Christina

Addresses: Department of ECE, Chettinadu College of Engineering and Technology, Karur 639114, India. ' Department of ECE, JJ College of Engineering and Technology, Trichy 620009, India. ' Department of ECE, Mookambigai College of Engineering, Trichy 622 502, India

Abstract: The design and simulation of a Micro Electro Mechanical Systems (MEMS)-based Optical Signal Processing (OSP) beam former for cellular network base stations are reported in this paper. The modulated optical signal destined for a mobile terminal is split into eight equal-intensity signals. Each signal is weighted by controlling the phase and amplitude using a pair of micromirrors driven by electrostatic comb drive actuators. The processed optical signal is heterodyned with a phase-locked local optical signal. The resulting weighted microwave signal is then fed to the corresponding element of the 1 × 8 antenna array. The radiation patterns of the proposed multibeam-forming network are simulated using MATLAB and SIMULINK.

Keywords: maximum directivity algorithm; smart antenna; mobile communications; optical beam forming; broadband communications; microelectromechanical systems; MEMS; optical signal processing; cellular networks; base stations; micromirrors; electrostatic comb drive actuators; simulation.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMC.2009.025538

International Journal of Mobile Communications, 2009 Vol.7 No.6, pp.683 - 694

Published online: 22 May 2009 *

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