Adaptive communications focal plane array
First Claim
1. An adaptive communications focal plane array comprising:
- a plurality of optical detectors, a subset of which receive one or more optical beams transmitted by one or more optical transmitter assemblies;
a plurality of signal discrimination circuits, each of which is operatively connected to a corresponding one of the plurality of optical detectors and performs the following;
detects the presence of an optical beam that is currently being received by its corresponding optical detector;
computes an estimated signal-to-noise ratio associated with the optical beam it has detected; and
sets a value of the estimated signal-to-noise ratio to a set value when it has not detected the presence of the optical beam;
a plurality of switching circuits, each of which is operatively connected to a corresponding one of the plurality of optical detectors and a corresponding one of the plurality of signal discrimination circuits, wherein each of the plurality of switching circuits;
controls a flow of information being received from the optical beam;
outputs a location relative to other detectors of the plurality of optical detectors indicative of the corresponding optical detector receiving the optical beam; and
outputs the estimated signal-to-noise ratio provided by its corresponding signal discrimination circuit; and
an analog output detector operatively connected to each of the plurality of switching circuits, the analog output detector informing each of the plurality of switching circuits whether or not information being received by an optical detector from the optical beam is currently being output by any one of the plurality of switching circuits.
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Accused Products
Abstract
Adaptive communications focal plane arrays that may be implemented in, e.g., a specially-configured camera that can be utilized to receive and/or process information in the form of optical beams are presented. A specialized focal plane array (FPA) having a plurality of optical detectors is utilized, where one or more optical detectors are suppressed such that data is not allowed to be output from the one or more suppressed optical detectors, and only a significantly smaller number or subset of optical detectors receiving optical beams are allowed to output data. In this way, the rate at which data is to be output by an adaptive communications FPA (ACFPA) can be significantly reduced.
311 Citations
26 Claims
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1. An adaptive communications focal plane array comprising:
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a plurality of optical detectors, a subset of which receive one or more optical beams transmitted by one or more optical transmitter assemblies; a plurality of signal discrimination circuits, each of which is operatively connected to a corresponding one of the plurality of optical detectors and performs the following; detects the presence of an optical beam that is currently being received by its corresponding optical detector; computes an estimated signal-to-noise ratio associated with the optical beam it has detected; and sets a value of the estimated signal-to-noise ratio to a set value when it has not detected the presence of the optical beam; a plurality of switching circuits, each of which is operatively connected to a corresponding one of the plurality of optical detectors and a corresponding one of the plurality of signal discrimination circuits, wherein each of the plurality of switching circuits; controls a flow of information being received from the optical beam; outputs a location relative to other detectors of the plurality of optical detectors indicative of the corresponding optical detector receiving the optical beam; and outputs the estimated signal-to-noise ratio provided by its corresponding signal discrimination circuit; and an analog output detector operatively connected to each of the plurality of switching circuits, the analog output detector informing each of the plurality of switching circuits whether or not information being received by an optical detector from the optical beam is currently being output by any one of the plurality of switching circuits. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23)
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24. A method of extracting optical beacon information embedded in an optical beam comprising:
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initializing each of a plurality of switched detector assemblies of an adaptive communications focal plane array, such that all the switching circuits are initially turned off; for each of the plurality of switched detector assemblies, determining existence of the following two conditions; a signal-to-noise ratio of an optical beam being received by the optical detector of the switched detector assembly equals or exceeds a minimum signal-to-noise ratio value; and no optical beams are detected as being output from any of the plurality of switched detector assemblies; turning on each of the plurality of switched detector assemblies for which the two conditions are met; and maintaining each of the plurality of switched detector assemblies in an on mode unless one or more of the following occurs; the signal-to-noise ratio of the received optical beam falls below the minimum signal-to-noise ratio value or a command is received instructing one or more of the plurality of switched detector assemblies to turn off. - View Dependent Claims (25, 26)
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Specification