A cat's eye multiple quantum-well modulating retro-reflector

Rabinovich, William S.; Mahon, Rita; Goetz, Peter G.; Waluschka, Eugène; Katzer, D. S.; Binari, S.C.; Gilbreath, G. C.

doi:10.1109/lpt.2002.807904

Cited by 75 publications

(31 citation statements)

References 7 publications

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“…Recently we have developed a new kind of MRR that uses cat's eye retroreflectors and places the modulator in the focal plane of the cat's eye optic [8], [9], [10]. In this paper we discuss different forms of cat's eye MRRs and their relevant figures of merit.…”

Section: Modulating Retro-reflectorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

45 Mbps cat's eye modulating retro-reflector link over 7 Km

et al. 2006

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Modulating retro-reflectors (MRR) allow free space optical links with no need for pointing, tracking or a laser on one end of the link. They work by coupling a passive optical retro-reflector with an optical modulator. The most common kind of MRR uses a corner cube retro-reflector. These devices must have a modulator whose active area is as large as the area of the corner cube. This limits the ability to close longer range high speed links because the large aperture need to return sufficient light implies a large modulator capacitance. To overcome this limitation we developed the concept of a cat's eye MRR. Cat's eye MRRs place the modulator in the focal plane of a lens system designed to passively retro-reflect light. Because the light focuses onto the modulator, a small, low capacitance, modulator can be used with a large optical aperture. However, the position of the focal spot varies with the angle of incidence so an array of modulators must be placed in the focal plane, In addition, to avoid having to drive all the modulator pixels, an angle of arrival sensor must be used. We discuss several cat's eye MRR systems with near diffraction limited performance and bandwidths of 45 Mbps. We also discuss a link to a cat's eye MRR over a 7 Km range.

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Section: Modulating Retro-reflectorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

45 Mbps cat's eye modulating retro-reflector link over 7 Km

et al. 2006

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“…MQW retromodulators can support up to 12 Mbps with centimeter-level diameters and higher with millimeter-level diameters. 5 The devices are essentially narrow-band tunable optical filters and so they enable secure data transfer over carrier frequencies not susceptible to the band allocation problems characteristic of radio frequency links.…”

Section: Mqw Mrrmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This has motivated the NRL to consider a new class of retromodulators: the ''cat's eye'' retromodulator. 5,7 In these devices, the ''cat's eye'' retroarchitecture enables us to use a much smaller MQW modulator. Essentially, an array of very small devices-of the order of a millimeter each-can be placed in the pupil or focal plane of a cat's eye retromodulator, illuminating just one or a few ''pixels'' of the modulator array.…”

Section: ''Cat's Eye'' Retromodulatorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Progress in development of multiple-quantum-well retromodulators for free-space data links

et al. 2003

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Abstract. We present an update on the progress of the development of the Naval Research Laboratory's (NRL's) multiple-quantum-well retromodulators for compact, low-power communications. We report results for data-in-flight on a small, unmanned aerial vehicle at up to 5 Mbps, in preparation for real-time video transfer using an array of devices. This data was taken at Chesapeake Bay Detachment. We also report transference of color video using wavelet compression at 15 and 30 frames/s, at 4 to 6 Mbps in the lab, at eye-safe intensity levels. The unit is a corner cube modulator using a 980-nm shutter. A five-element array was used for the data-in-flight. First results of our 1550-nm devices are also presented as progress in a ''cat's eye retromodulator.''

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“…This has motivated the NRL to consider a new class of retromodulators: the "Cats Eye" retromodulator. [5,6] In these devices, the "Cats Eye" retro architecture enables us to use a much smaller MQW modulator. Essentially, an array of very small devices -on the order of a millimeter each -can be placed in the pupil or focal plane of a cat's eye retromodulator.. illuminating just one or a few "pixels" of the modulator array..…”

Section: "Cat's Eye" Retromodulatorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Real-time video transfer using multiple quantum-well retromodulators

et al. 2002

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This paper is an update in the progress of the development of NRL's Multiple Quantum Well retromodulators for compact, low power communications. We report results for data-in-flight on a small, unmanned aerial vehicle at up to 5 Mbps, in preparation for real-time video transfer using an array of devices. This data was taken at Chesapeake Bay Detachment. We also report transference of color video using wavelet compression at 15 and 30 frames per second, at 4 to 6 Mbps in lab, at eye safe intensity levels. The unit is a cornercube modulator using a 980 nm shutter. A five-element array was used for the data-in-flight. First results of our 1550 nm devices are also presented as is progress in a "Cats Eye Retromodulator". IntroductionDue to its promise of wide bandwidth, freedom from frequency allocations issues, comparatively small communications terminals, and low power requirements, free space optical communications has emerged in recent years as an attractive alternative to the conventional Radio Frequency (RF) approach.There are many applications, where reducing the parasitic payload requirements for the onboard communications system would be advantageous and the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) has been developing multiple quantum well (MQW) retroreflectors for just this purpose. [1,2] In this paper, we report progress in the implementation of the wide aperture MQW modulating retroreflector (MRR) for video and multiple Mega-bit-per-second (Mbps) data transfer for compact, lightweight, low power optical data transfer.The device couples an electro-absorptive narrow band tunable shutter with a standard optical corner cube. It is lightweight (on the order of ounces), low power (milliwatts), compact (centimeter-level diameters), and radiation-hard. [3] When coupled with a sensor and drive electronics, the package can serve as the communications payload for a remotely located platform.The payload is interrogated by a laser and modulated by the shutter.The modulated retroreflected light is received and demodulated at the transmit/receive location. This technique is especially suited to asymmetric links where the communications payload located remotely can be quite small -the size of a quarter for a single device and the size of a fist for an array. This asymmetry is enabled by the rangeto-the-fourth loss inherent in the use of retroreflected links. That is, the received power in the far field is proportional to:.where P laser is the transmit power, D retro is the diameter of the retroreflector, D rec is the receiver diameter, T atm is the transmission coefficient of the atmosphere, T cl is the transmission coefficient of clouds, θ div is the divergence of the transmit beam, and R is the range. The onus of the link consequently falls on the power of the transmitter, the size of the receive telescope and the quality of the In previous work, we reported data-in-flight on a micro-UAV of 400 kbps and 910 kbps at ranges on the order of 35 meters. [4] In this effort, psuedo random codes varying from 300 kbps through 5 ...

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A cat's eye multiple quantum-well modulating retro-reflector

Cited by 75 publications

References 7 publications

45 Mbps cat's eye modulating retro-reflector link over 7 Km

45 Mbps cat's eye modulating retro-reflector link over 7 Km

Progress in development of multiple-quantum-well retromodulators for free-space data links

Real-time video transfer using multiple quantum-well retromodulators

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