HIGH PERFORMANCE COMPACT RF RECEIVER FOR SPACE FLIGHT APPLICATIONS
First Claim
1. A compact photonic radio frequency receiver system for space and airborne applications, the system comprising:
- a laser source configured to generate laser light;
radio frequency (RF) and local oscillator (LO) input ports configured to receive RF and LO signals, respectively;
one or more centimeter scale or smaller waveguide phase modulators coupled to the laser source and configured to receive the RF and LO signals and to modulate the laser light with the RF and LO signals in a first and a second path and to generate phase-modulated laser lights including an RF-modulated light signal and an LO-modulated light signal; and
a first and a second centimeter scale or smaller filters coupled to the centimeter scale or smaller waveguide phase modulators, the first centimeter scale or smaller filter configured to separate a desired spectral band in the phase-modulated laser light of the first path and the second centimeter scale or smaller filter configured to pass a first portion of the LO-modulated light signal for heterodyne purposes and to reflect a second portion of the LO modulated signal to facilitate wavelength locking of the laser light of the second path; and
an optical combiner configured to combine output laser lights of the first and second filters.
1 Assignment
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Accused Products
Abstract
A compact photonic radio frequency receiver system includes a laser source that is configured to generate laser light Radio frequency (RF) and local oscillator (LO) input ports may receive RF and LO signals, respectively. One or more miniature lithium niobate waveguide phase modulators may be coupled to the laser source to receive the RF and LO signals and to modulate the laser light with the RF and LO signals in a first and a second path, and to generate phase-modulated laser lights including an RF-modulated light signal and an LO-modulated light signal. A first and a second miniature filter may be coupled to the miniature lithium niobate waveguide to separate a desired spectral band in the phase-modulated laser light of the first path and to facilitate wavelength locking of the laser light of the second path. An optical combiner may combine output laser lights of the first and second filters
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Citations
27 Claims
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1. A compact photonic radio frequency receiver system for space and airborne applications, the system comprising:
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a laser source configured to generate laser light; radio frequency (RF) and local oscillator (LO) input ports configured to receive RF and LO signals, respectively; one or more centimeter scale or smaller waveguide phase modulators coupled to the laser source and configured to receive the RF and LO signals and to modulate the laser light with the RF and LO signals in a first and a second path and to generate phase-modulated laser lights including an RF-modulated light signal and an LO-modulated light signal; and a first and a second centimeter scale or smaller filters coupled to the centimeter scale or smaller waveguide phase modulators, the first centimeter scale or smaller filter configured to separate a desired spectral band in the phase-modulated laser light of the first path and the second centimeter scale or smaller filter configured to pass a first portion of the LO-modulated light signal for heterodyne purposes and to reflect a second portion of the LO modulated signal to facilitate wavelength locking of the laser light of the second path; and an optical combiner configured to combine output laser lights of the first and second filters. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21)
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22. A method of using photonics in a space borne or airborne radio frequency (RF) communication or electronic warfare (EW) system, comprising:
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using one or more centimeter or smaller scale lithium niobate waveguide phase modulators to phase-modulate an RF signal including a data component received from an uplink source to an optical carrier to generate an RF-modulated light signal; using the one centimeter or smaller scale lithium niobate waveguide modulators to phase-modulate a local oscillator (LO) signal to the optical carrier to generate an LO-modulated light signal; filtering using, millimeter to centimeter scale optical filters, the RF-modulated and the LO-modulated light signals; and processing the RF-modulated light signal and the LO-modulated light signal to recover a downlink frequency component and generating a downlink signal including the data component. - View Dependent Claims (23, 24, 25, 26)
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27. A compact photonic radio frequency receiver system for space flight applications, the system comprising:
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a laser source chip configured to generate a carrier laser light; one or more miniature lithium niobate waveguide phase modulators coupled to the laser source and configured to modulate the carrier laser light with an RF and a local oscillator (LO) signal and to generate phase-modulated laser lights; and miniature optical filters coupled to the one or more miniature lithium niobate waveguides and configured to separate a desired spectral band in the phase-modulated laser lights and to facilitate wavelength locking of the carrier laser light, the miniature filters comprising an optical RF multi-pole filter; a miniature optical switch array coupled to the miniature optical filters and configured to switch multiple channels of modulated and filtered laser lights; and a miniature detector coupled to the optical switch array and configured to perform a heterodyne process by mixing the RF-modulated light signal and the LO-modulated light signal and to recover a radio frequency output of a desired downlink frequency component.
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Specification