The JJW Consulting/AIL Systems Inc. team proposes the development of a Ka-Band 4 x 20 Crossbar Switch with low insertion loss (< 0 2dB) andhigh isolation (>30dB). The crossbar switch incorporates innovative photonic techniques that result in rapid switching (< 1 ms), low power dissipation (< 10 watts-maximum) and is relatively inexpensive. The proposed design can switch any of the inputs to any of the outputs simultaneously. The bandwidth of the Ka-Band switch is 4 GHz minimum. The number of ports on the switch can be expanded beyond the 4 x 20 design as proposed. The innovative design can also be extended in frequency to at least W-Band.
Benefits: Due to its low cost potential, development and application of systems using multi-beam electronic scanning techniques for point-to-point communication and shared apertures becomesaffordable. In addition, commercial applications such as satellite communications, rf testing, multi-beam radars for airport control, cellular communications also becomes feasible and affordable.
