An optical phased array antenna for clustering μsatellites using laser communication

The use of a 2-D optical phased array (OPA) steering antenna in microsatellite clusters is very attractive as it is lightweight and compact, and provides agile and inertia-free 2-D beam steering. In this work, we combined OPA theory with optical wireless communication system concepts to achieve a new perspective on potential technologies for microsatellite cluster communication. The optical wireless communication intersatellite link using 2-D integrated OPA steering antenna was modeled. Then we theoretically analyzed the proposed communication system and illustrated the model by a numerical simulation. Taking into account the phasing errors, the antenna's gain distribution statistics were derived from OPA theory by use of the Monte Carlo method. We then applied these results to make a broad analysis of an optical wireless communication system and to investigate the effect of OPA phasing errors on system performance.