Apparatus, method, and computer program product for controlling an interferromic phased array
First Claim
1. An apparatus for compensating for phase shifts in an optical power signal, wherein said apparatus comprises:
- an optical phase modulator for altering the phase of the optical power signal;
a detector assembly that receives an interference signal generated by optical interference of the optical power signal and a reference signal, wherein said detector assembly generates a lockin signal that is representative of an optical phase difference between the optical power signal and the reference signal; and
a processor in electrical communication with both said detector assembly and said optical phase modulator, wherein said processor receives the lockin signal and compares the lockin signal to at least one predetermined set point value, wherein if the lockin signal exceeds the set point value, said processor alters the lockin signal by combining the lockin signal with a step waveform to thereby produce a combined feedback signal that has a value within desired operation parameters of said optical phase modulator.
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Accused Products
Abstract
The present invention provides several apparatus, methods, and computer program products for phase shifts in an optical signal generated by an optical device. The present invention includes a optical phase modulator for altering the phase of the optical signals output by an optical device. The present invention also includes a detector assembly that receives an interference signal generated by an optical interference of a power signal and a reference signal. The detector assembly generates a lockin signal representing the optical phase difference between the power signal and the reference signal. Connected to both the detector assembly and the optical phase detector is a processor. The processor receives the lockin signal from the detector assembly and compares the lockin signal to at least one predetermined set point value. The predetermined set point value represents either a desired maximum lockin signal value or a range of acceptable lockin values. If the lockin signal either exceeds the set point value or is not within a range of lockin signal values defined by the predetermined set point value, the processor combines the lockin signal with a step waveform and generates a combined feedback signal having a value within desired operation parameters of the optical phase modulator. In one embodiment of the invention, the processor combines the lockin signal with an exponential step function having a step portion of 2πn.
61 Citations
42 Claims
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1. An apparatus for compensating for phase shifts in an optical power signal, wherein said apparatus comprises:
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an optical phase modulator for altering the phase of the optical power signal;
a detector assembly that receives an interference signal generated by optical interference of the optical power signal and a reference signal, wherein said detector assembly generates a lockin signal that is representative of an optical phase difference between the optical power signal and the reference signal; and
a processor in electrical communication with both said detector assembly and said optical phase modulator, wherein said processor receives the lockin signal and compares the lockin signal to at least one predetermined set point value, wherein if the lockin signal exceeds the set point value, said processor alters the lockin signal by combining the lockin signal with a step waveform to thereby produce a combined feedback signal that has a value within desired operation parameters of said optical phase modulator. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12)
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13. A method for compensating for phase shifts in an optical power signal generated by an optical device having an optical phase modulator for altering the phase of the optical power signal, wherein said method comprises the steps of:
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receiving an interference signal generated by optical interference of an optical signal and a reference signal;
generating a lockin signal representative of an optical phase difference between the optical power signal and the reference signal;
comparing the lockin signal to at least one predetermined set point value; and
combining the lockin signal with a step waveform to create a combined feedback signal if the lockin signal exceeds the set point value, such that the combined feedback signal has a value within desired operation parameters of said optical phase modulator. - View Dependent Claims (14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22)
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23. An apparatus for individually compensating for phase shifts in each of a plurality of optical power signals, wherein said apparatus comprises:
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a plurality of optical phase modulators for altering the phase of an associated optical power signal;
a plurality of detector assemblies that each receive an interference signal generated by optical interference of an optical power signal and a reference signal associated with each detector assembly, wherein each of said detector assemblies generates a respective lockin signal representative of an optical phase difference between the optical power signal and the reference signal associated with said detector assembly; and
a processor in electrical communication with both said plurality of detector assemblies and said plurality of optical phase modulators, wherein said processor receives a lockin signal generated by each of said detector assemblies and compares the respective lockin signal to at least one predetermined set point value for the respective optical phase modulator, wherein if the lockin signal exceeds the set point value said processor alters the lockin signal by combining the lockin signal with a step waveform to thereby produce a combined feedback signal that has a value within desired operation parameters of said optical phase modulator. - View Dependent Claims (24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35)
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36. A computer program product for compensating for phase shifts in an optical power signal generated by an optical device, wherein the optical device includes an optical phase modulator for altering the phase of the optical signal and a detector assembly that generates a lockin signal that is representative of an optical phase difference between the optical power signal and a reference signal, wherein the computer program product comprises:
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a computer readable storage medium having computer readable program code means embodied in said medium, said computer-readable program code means comprising;
first computer-readable program code means for comparing the lockin signal to at least one predetermined set point value; and
second computer-readable program code means for combining the lockin signal with a step waveform to create a combined feedback signal if the lockin signal exceeds the set point value, such that the combined feedback signal has a value within desired operation parameters of said optical phase modulator. - View Dependent Claims (37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42)
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Specification