HRL Laboratories' Scientist Receives Excellence In Technology Award

LOS ANGELES, July 28, 2005 - Dr. Willie W. Ng, a Principal Research Scientist at HRL Laboratories, LLC was one of six individual recipients of a 2004 Raytheon Excellence in Technology (EiT) Award. The awards were presented in a ceremony conducted at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, Washington, D.C.  Dr. Ng was cited for his pioneering work in demonstrating photonic modules and techniques, and their application to enhance the performance of microwave antenna systems, especially phased arrays.  The development of photonic approaches is of key importance to several advanced programs in the Raytheon Company's Space and Airborne Systems (SAS) business unit.

At HRL Laboratories, Dr. Ng has led the development of RF-photonic modules and links, including those that use semiconductor lasers as cost-effective, directly modulated optical sources.  This series of work includes the first demonstration - under the sponsorship of the Air Force Research Labs (Rome, New York Site) - of an optically controlled microwave phased array antenna using true-time-delay beam-steering.   Dr. Ng's work also helped to establish HRL and Raytheon as technical leaders in RF-photonics.  Through HRL's close working relationship with Raytheon in directed research projects and through several DARPA programs (led by HRL), photonic modules have found applications in numerous Raytheon products.

In RF-photonic links, analog microwave signals - typically derived from a sensor - are modulated onto optical carriers that propagate in lightweight and low loss optical fibers (or waveguides) that also possess excellent electromagnetic isolation.  Because of the high carrier frequency (~2 x 105 GHz at the optical wavelength of 1550 nm), one can construct - using a single set of photonic hardware - a broadband and reconfigurable photonic subsystem that can be used for signal distribution, signal processing or the generation of precise time-delays.  In the HRL/Raytheon work on optically steered phased arrays, these features were used to form antenna beams over multiple microwave bands.  Using several innovative approaches, the HRL/Raytheon projects/programs also significantly enhanced the spur free dynamic ranges of RF-photonic links, thus enabling the high fidelity distribution of microwave signals via optical fibers.

In the ceremony, Dr. Ng received a crystal award in the Milestones of Flight gallery of the Smithsonian Institution from Mr. W. H. Swanson, Chairman and CEO of the Raytheon Company, and Dr. M. Ganz, President of HRL.         

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