WiSE faculties presented their latest findings at the 2024 International Microwave Symposium (IMS), held in Washington, DC on June 18-20, 2024. The photonically-enabled radio front end, photonic integrated circuit (PIC), and radio-over-fiber (RFoF) technologies found a warm reception in this historically microwave-centric flagship event.

• The paper Ultrawideband Modular RF Frontend Development for Photonically Enabled Imaging Receiver, co-authored by WiSE faculties Dr. Shouyuan Shi, Dr. Dennis Prather and their industry colleagues at Phase Sensitive Innovations, Inc. (PSI), was selected as one of the top submissions and recommended for publication in IEEE Microwave and Wireless Technology Letters. It demonstrates a modular RF-photonic phased array frontend with integrated antennas, low-noise amplifiers (LNAs), and electrooptic modulators is reconfigurable and scalable to form 2-D phased arrays of any size. The developed phased-array system demonstrates the ability to process multiple wide-bandwidth RF beams simultaneously, yielding an unmatched beam-bandwidth product (BBP).
• The paper Tunable Optically Fed Radiofrequency Source for Distributing Coherent High-Fidelity Signals, co-authored by PSI engineers and WiSE faculty members Dr. Garrett Schneider and Dr. Dennis Prather, described a millimeter wave (mmWave) equivalent of the well-known ‘Young’s Double Slit’ experiment, with power peaks and nulls arbitrarily steerable from 45 kilometers away with negligible loss of phase coherence and power. Extension to ‘M-slit’ is underway, forming an enabling technology for coherent antenna remoting that is critical for cell-free MIMO communication. 
• The paper Silicon Photonic Integrated Circuit Beamformer for RF Photonic Applications, co-authored by PSI researchers and WiSE faculty members Dr. Garrett Schneider, Dr. Shouyuan Shi and Dr. Dennis Prather, describes a 32-channel analog spatial Fourier transformer inside a silicon photonic integrated circuit (PIC) measuring 4mm by 6mm, and demonstrate uplink spatial multiplexing at 28 GHz. The low power consumption and small form factor of the RF PIC facilitates dense deployment of simple radio access points in next-generation wireless communication and sensing networks.