In a particular embodiment, the optical signal (e.g., the photonic signals 190, 192, 194, or 196) travels in a substantially straight path from the one or more light sources (e.g., the LEDs 150, 152, 154, or 156) to the corresponding active filter nodes (e.g., the active filter nodes 120, 122, 124, or 126). In an alternative embodiment, the optical signal (e.g., the photonic signals 190, 192, 194, or 196) travels in a curved (or angular) path from the one or more light sources (e.g., the LEDs 150, 152, 154, or 156) to the corresponding active filter nodes (e.g., the active filter nodes 120, 122, 124, or 126). For example, the photonic signal 190 may travel via a curved light guide through at least a portion of the ground layer 116, the dielectric layer 118, or both.

In a particular embodiment, the ground layer 116 includes at least a portion of one or more components of the antenna 100. For example, the ground layer 116 may include at least a portion of one or more of the current drivers 140, 142, 144, 146, the controllers 112, 114, the transmit/receive switch 106, the RF transmit/receive front-end section 108, the transmit/receive baseband section 110, the balun 104, the one or more light sources (e.g., the LEDs 150, 152, 154, or 156), the feed 102, the plurality of active filter nodes (e.g., the active filter nodes 120, 122, 124, or 126), or the power delivery optical laser 170.