Analog Photonic Links for Built-in-Testing of Electronic Support Measures (ESM) Systems

In this work, we present a photonically enabled built-in-test BIT architecture for electronic support measures ESM systems. The BIT system employs an analog optical link in concert with a dipole probe antenna and wireless link to provide 10.5 GHz test signals to the ESM receiver. This work details the optical link design and provides a characterization of the link gain as a function of received photocurrent and photodiode bias. In addition, we describe and characterize the wireless link in terms of the ESM antenna pattern and probe position and polarization. The design of the probe antenna and integrated balun are discussed and gain calibration are provided. In this work we also provide initial measurements of the impact of the BIT system on receiving operations by measuring the antenna patterns azimuth and elevation of the biconical antenna under test. We also discuss extension of the photonic BIT architecture to wideband 500 MHz - 40 GHz operation.