Performance of 16-channel, photonic, phased-array antenna calibration system

Experimental results from a 16-channel photonic phased-array calibration system are presented. The calibrator utilises an array of fibre-pigtailed, zero-biased photodiodes as optical transducers to transmit an RF signal from an electrically-shorted dipole integrated in each unit cell of a frequency-selective surface radome. RF phase and amplitude stability, along with the overall RF transparency of the hardware, are presented. The system successfully demonstrates a solution with performance suitable for in situ real-time calibration of phased-array antennas.