Millimeter wave fiber-optically linked antenna receiver device

An antenna/receiver device, comprising

• (a) a slow-wave antenna for receiving RF signals, said antenna having a pair of terminals for providing odd-mode excitation of the antenna;
• (b) an RF signal processing circuit assembled into an integrated unit with said antenna, said circuit comprising a differential-input circuit connected to said pair of antenna terminals for providing odd-mode, anti-phase current excitation of said terminals and for amplifying said RF signals, said circuit further comprising a processing circuit for operating on said RF signals and generating an output signal from said RF signals;
• and
• (c) exclusively optical signal interfaces to and from said device, said optical signal interfaces comprising means for optically coupling electrical power to the device and means for optically coupling said output signal out of said antenna/receiver device.

An antenna/receiver device, comprising

• (a) a slow-wave antenna for receiving RF signals, said antenna disposed on a nonconductive substrate and having a pair of terminals for providing odd-mode excitation of the antenna, said pair of terminals passing through the substrate, the antenna and substrate comprising one end of a housing, said housing further comprising conductive side and rear walls and having a cavity within said walls, said cavity being filled with anechoic material for absorbing radio frequency energy;
• (b) an RF signal processing circuit within the housing cavity, said circuit being located adjacent to the antenna substrate and connected to the antenna signal terminals, said circuit including circuitry for providing odd-mode, anti-phase current excitation of said antenna terminals and circuitry for amplifying and mixing said RF signals with a local oscillator signal for generating an intermediate frequency output signal,
• (c) exclusively optical interfaces for signals into and out of the device, said interfaces comprising
• (i) means for optically coupling said local oscillator signal to said circuit means via an optical carrier signal modulated by said local oscillator signal, said means for coupling including means for demodulating said optical carrier signal,
• (ii) means for optically coupling said intermediate frequency output signal out of said antenna/receiver device via an optical carrier signal modulated by said intermediate frequency output signal, said means for coupling including means for modulating said optical carrier signal, and
• (iii) means for coupling to said device an optical signal from which electrical power for said device is derived,
• all of said optical interfaces passing through a wall of the housing for connection to external equipment.

An antenna/receiver device, comprising

• (a) a slow-wave antenna for receiving an RF signal, said antenna having a pair of terminals for providing antenna output signals representative of said RF signal, said antenna signals at said terminals being 180.degree. out of current phase with respect to each other,
• (b) an RF signal processing circuit assembled into an integrated unit with said antenna, said circuit comprising a differential input circuit for exciting said antenna terminals with odd mode current phase shift between said antenna output signals and for amplifying said antenna output signals, said circuit further comprising a detector for detecting video information contained in said RF signals and generating a video output signal;
• and
• (c) exclusively optical interfaces for coupling signals into and out of the device, said interfaces including means for optically coupling said video output signal out of said antenna/receiver device.

An antenna/receiver device, comprising

• (a) a slow-wave antenna for receiving an RF signal, said antenna having a pair of terminals for providing antenna output signals representative of said RF signal, said antenna signals at said antenna input terminals being odd-mode signals 180.degree. out of current phase with respect to each other,
• (b) an RF signal processing circuit assembled into an integrated unit with said antenna, said circuit comprising a differential amplifier circuit connected to said antenna terminals for odd-mode termination of said antenna, said circuit including a mixer for mixing said antenna output signals with a local oscillator signal for generating an intermediate frequency signal,
• (c) a detector for detecting video information contained in said RF signal and generating a video output signal representative of said video information, and
• (d) exclusively optical interfaces for coupling signals into and out of the device, said optical interfaces including means for optically coupling said video output signal out of said antenna/receiver device.

An antenna/receiver device, comprising

• (a) a slow-wave antenna for receiving RF signals, said antenna having a pair of terminals for providing odd-mode antenna excitation of the antenna,
• (b) circuit means for providing odd-mode, anti-phase current excitation of said antenna terminals, said circuit including means for amplifying and mixing said RF signals with a local oscillator signal for generating an intermediate frequency output signal,
• (c) means for optically coupling said local oscillator signal to said circuit means via an optical carrier signal modulated by said local oscillator signal, said means for coupling including means for demodulating said optical carrier signal,
• (d) means for optically coupling said intermediate frequency output signal out of said antenna/receiver device via an optical carrier signal modulated by said intermediate frequency output signal, said means for coupling including means for modulating said optical carrier signal, and
• (e) means for coupling to said device an optical signal from which electrical power for said device is derived.