Methods, systems and devices for free-space optical communications

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2022393761-A1
Application number	US-202217835042-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Jun 8, 2022
Priority date	Dec 13, 2019
Publication date	Dec 8, 2022
Grant date	—

Abstract

Methods, systems, and devices for free-space optical communications. An aircraft includes a flat optical communication terminal on an external surface of the aircraft, the flat optical communication terminal being configured to communicate with a ground station via a free-space optical communication link.

First claim

1 . A flat optical terminal comprising:
a plurality of functional layers in a layer stack, with each functional layer implementing a different function of optical compensation and beam processing, the layer stack comprising: a first layer including an optical phase array; a second layer stacked on top of the first layer including a liquid crystal modulator or an array of micro-electromechanical elements; and a third layer stacked on top of the second layer including a polarization grating.

2 . The flat optical terminal of claim 1 , wherein the layer stack further comprises a modulation/demodulation layer coupled to the optical phase array in the first layer.

3 . The flat optical terminal of claim 1 , wherein the optical phase array includes multiple antenna elements binned in one or more two-dimensional antenna blocks.

4 . The flat optical terminal of claim 3 , wherein each of the antenna blocks is connected to a common bus and coupled to a block-associated phase tuning element.

5 . The flat optical terminal of claim 1 , wherein the optical phase array includes multiple rows of antenna elements connected in parallel to each other to a common bus.

6 . The flat optical terminal of claim 5 , wherein each common bus is configured to be fed via a single phase tuning element per common bus.

7 . The flat optical terminal of claim 1 , wherein the multiple antenna elements are overlaid with flat optical lenses.

8 . The flat optical terminal of claim 7 , wherein the flat optical lenses are microlenses or Newtonian telescopes made from flat meta-lenses.

9 . The flat optical terminal of claim 7 , wherein each antenna element is overlaid with a single flat optical lens.

10 . The flat optical terminal of claim 7 , wherein subsets of multiple antenna elements are overlaid with a common flat optical lens.

Assignees

• Airbus Defence & Space Gmbh

Inventors

• Comin Alberto
• Multerer Thomas
• Anderson Andrew A
• Tepper Jan
• Schleicher Bernd
• Drexler Andreas
• Gimeno Martín Alejandro
• Shortt Kevin

Classifications

• H04B10/11 Primary

  Arrangements specific to free-space transmission, i.e. transmission through air or vacuum · CPC title

• G02B26/106

  having diffraction gratings as scanning elements, e.g. holographic scanners (holographic optical elements G02B5/32, holography G03H) · CPC title

• G02F2203/12

  spatial light modulator · CPC title

• G02B26/06

  for controlling the phase of light (G02B26/08 takes precedence {, measuring optical phase difference G01J9/00}) · CPC title

• G02F2202/20

  LiNbO3, LiTaO3 · CPC title