Abstract
The University of Central Florida invention comprises methods for mitigating atmospheric turbulence in free-space coherent optical communications. Such turbulence distorts the wavefront of a signal, resulting in amplitude and phase error at the detector. To mitigate this problem, the UCF invention uses an adaptive optics photonic integrated circuit (PIC) in conjunction with wavefront sensors and feedback controls for wavefront correction. The technology also includes arrayed incoherent receivers to eliminate costly and slow adaptive optics for FSO communications.
Technical Details: The UCF technology incorporates the following:
- An adaptive optics PIC for wavefront correction in which monitoring is done at each stage using phase detectors (PDs).
- A digitally implemented PIC. During the wavefront correction process, a digital signal processing (DSP) unit representing a unitary matrix receives the plurality of electrical signals formed during the process and combines them into one signal, preserving the complex amplitudes of the plurality of parts.
- Pilot phase estimation. A possible embodiment of this method is to send a pilot signal at a much lower baud rate than the data itself. That way, the pilot signal can be filtered out and phase estimation can be done using the pilot signal. Since the pilot is at a much lower symbol rate, a small amount of power can be added at the transmitter for the pilot signal.
Partnering Opportunity: The research team is seeking partners for licensing, research collaboration, or both.
Benefit
Lower costFaster adaptive opticsMarket Application
Telecommunication and computer networking companiesSecurityMilitary
Brochure
