The Aerospace Corporation

Hrl Laboratories, LLC

George Anthony Sefler

George C Valley

Willie W Ng

Thomas Justin Shaw

A multi-mode optic can receive as input a radio-frequency (RF) signal imposed on an optical carrier, and can output a speckle pattern. A digital representation of the radio-frequency signal can be obtained based on the speckle pattern. An optical sensor can be irradiated with a first portion of the speckle pattern, the first portion of the speckle pattern including an optical intensity profile that is different than an optical intensity profile of a second, spatially separated, portion of the speckle pattern. The multi-mode optic can impose the optical intensity profile on the first portion of the speckle pattern as a function of wavelength of the optical carrier. The optical intensity profiles of portions of the speckle pattern can define a mixing matrix. The digital representation of the RF signal can be obtained based on an output of the optical sensor and the mixing matrix.

Systems and methods for converting radio frequency signals into the digital domain using multi-mode optics

Systems and methods for converting wideband signals into the digital domain are provided herein. The system may include an electronic or guided-wave optic based replicator configured to obtain at least M replicas of a signal applied thereto, and an electronic or guided-wave optic based segmenter configured to segment a signal applied thereto into at least N segments based on time or wavelength. Together, the replicator and the segmenter obtain M&#xd7;N segment replicas of the received signal. An electronic or guided-wave optic based mixer is configured to multiply the M&#xd7;N segment replicas by a mixing matrix having dimension M&#xd7;N and then to form M integrations each of N segment replicas so as to obtain a measurement vector of length M. A signal recovery processor is configured to obtain a digital representation of the received signal based on the measurement vector and the mixing matrix.

Systems and methods for converting wideband signals into the digital domain using electronics or guided-wave optics

Various embodiments are directed to a photonic impulse generator comprising a periodically chirped photonic source a single-frequency photonic source, a photodetector, an optical coupler, and a filter. The optical coupler may be positioned to couple an output of the single-frequency photonic source to an output of the periodically chirped photonic source, resulting in a combined photonic signal. The photodetector may be positioned to receive the combined photonic signal and generate a combined electrical signal. The filter may be in electrical communication with an output of the photodetector to receive the combined electrical signal.

Photonic impulse generator

A method of performing analog to digital conversation of an analog signal V(t), the method including the steps of: utilizing both of the complementary arms of an electro-optic modulator to recover the analog input signal V(t), while using only one time-stretch element and one &#x3bb;-demultiplexer after the electro-optic modulator. The single time-stretch element and one &#x3bb;-demultiplexer serve to stretch and demultiplex the signals from both of the complementary output arms of the electro-optic modulator thereby improving and simplifying post-processing algorithms used to correct for static distortions and nonlinearities that originate from imperfect photonic hardware. Double-balanced photoreceivers are preferably coupled to outputs of the single &#x3bb;-demultiplexer. The single time-stretch element is preferably implemented by a chirped fiber grating. Apparatus for carrying out the method is described.

Wideband high resolution time-stretched photonic analog-to-digital converter

Systems and methods for converting wideband signals in the optical domain are provided. A device for obtaining a digital representation of a received signal may include a spatially dispersive element that may be configured to spatially disperse frequencies in an optical-domain representation of the received signal; a spatial light modulator that may be configured to mix the dispersed optical frequencies by imposing a mixing matrix on an optical intensity of the dispersed optical frequencies; an optical sensor that may be configured to obtain an electrical representation of the mixed dispersed optical frequencies; and a signal recovery processor that may be configured to obtain a digital representation of the received signal based on the electrical representation and the mixing matrix. The signal recovery processor may be further configured to determine a modulation format of the digital representation and may demodulate the digital representation based on the modulation format.

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Redondo Beach, CA, United States of America

George Anthony Sefler