System, method, and device for hybrid phase delay

Abstract

Systems and methods for beam forming are provided. The system includes an optical beam forming network (OBFN), one or more optical to radio frequency conversion units, and an analog beamforming network (ABFN). The OBFN forms a beam in the optical domain and includes an optical delay module for providing a true time delay in the optical domain to an optical signal received by the OBFN to introduce a coarse delayed optical signal. The optical to radio frequency (RF) conversion units convert the coarse delayed optical signal from the optical domain to the RF domain to obtain a coarse delayed RF signal. The ABFN forms a plurality of phase-shifted signals and provides the phase-shifted signals to corresponding array elements of an array system. The ABFN includes an analog delay module configured to provide at least one fine phase shift to the coarse delayed analog signal to obtain the delayed signals.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.