Patent ID: 7486247

Claim:
An antenna assembly comprising an antenna portion and an electrooptic waveguide portion, wherein: the antenna portion comprises at least one tapered slot antenna; an electrooptic waveguide extends along at least a portion of an optical path between an optical input and an optical output of the antenna assembly; the electrooptic waveguide comprises a waveguide core extending substantially parallel to a slotline of the tapered slot antenna in an active region of the antenna assembly; the electrooptic waveguide at least partially comprises a velocity matching electrooptic polymer in the active region of the antenna assembly; a velocity ν e of a millimeter or sub-millimeter wave signal traveling along the tapered slot antenna in the active region is at least partially a function of the dielectric constant of the velocity matching electrooptic polymer; a velocity ν O of an optical signal propagating along the waveguide in the active region is at least partially a function of the index of refraction of the velocity matching electrooptic polymer; and the active region and the velocity matching electrooptic polymer are configured such that ν e and ν O satisfy the following relation:  v e - v O  v O ≤ 20 ⁢ ⁢ % .