Raytheon Company

Amana Company, L.p.

Irl W Smith

Terry A Dorschner

Hermann Statz

William J Miniscalco

Michael Karl Oskar Holz

L E Brunel

Gerald P Uyeno

Sean D Keller

Joseph R Adamski

Edward R Cook

Manfred J Schindler

Daniel P Resler

Mark J Donovan

Steven R Collins

Michael K Holz

Richard C Sharp

Robert D O'Shea

Robert P Zagrodnick

Linda A Palmaccio

Amanda J Kirchner

Kirk L Fisher

Vincenzo D Pitruzzella

Evelyn W Kapusta

James C Patrikis

Howard L Waldman

An optical system capable of routing primary and secondary high power lasers through a blocking switch is described.

High power optical switch

A system includes a network having multiple network nodes each configured for free-space optical communication. Each network node includes one or more apertures through which optical beams are transmitted and received over optical links. The optical links include (i) a traffic link that transports higher-rate traffic between nodes and (ii) an acquisition/tracking link that transports lower-rate signals used to establish and maintain location knowledge of other nodes. Each network node also includes a network processor configured to determine one or more backup paths through the network. Each network node further includes a beam steering unit configured to redirect an optical beam from the traffic link onto the acquisition/tracking link to create a backup traffic link.

Free-space optical network with agile beam-based protection switching

A transmissive liquid crystal (LC) control structure comprising: a superstrate () having a first surface () having a GaN HEMT structure disposed thereon to provide a conductor on the first surface of said superstrate; a substrate () having a first surface disposed over and spaced apart from the first surface of said superstrate and having a GaN HEMT structure () disposed thereon to provide a conductor on the first surface of said substrate and wherein the GaN HEMT structure on one of the superstrate and substrate surfaces are patterned into individual electrodes; a polymer network liquid crystal (PNLC) () disposed in the space between the first surface of said superstrate and the first surface of said substrate; and a control circuit coupled to the individual electrodes.

Liquid crystal control structure, tip-tilt-focus optical phased array and high power adaptive optic

A steerable laser transmitter uses a two-stage architecture for beam steering. A LCWG is used to provide continuous fine steering and a PG stack is used to provide discrete coarse steering. An optical amplifier is inserted between the LCWG and the PG stack to provide gain and increase transmitter power, hence range. The LCWG is configured to limit its steering range to the acceptance angle of the optical amplifier, at most &#xb1;2&#xb0;&#xd7;&#xb1;2&#xb0;. The result is a high-power laser transmitter that can be rapidly and precisely steered over a large FOR.

Non-mechanically steered high-power laser transmitter

An optical switch () is capable of routing a high-power beam incident at one or more input ports () of the optical switch to either of two or more output ports (), the optical switch comprising: at least one switching stage, each of the at least one switching stages comprising: a switchable high-power liquid crystal (LC) half-wave plate (HWP), oriented with its fast axis at 45&#xb0; to an input polarization direction such that in response to an incident polarized laser beam provided to said switchable high-power liquid crystal, half-wave plate, said HWP acts as a polarization rotator; and a polarizing beam splitter (PBS) disposed in an optical path to intercept light signals output from said switchable high-power liquid crystal (LC) half wave plate (HWP).

A method and apparatus for accounting for phase differences in a transmit path of an optical system is provided. A transmit control system nullifies phase errors in signals propagating from a coherent source to phase samplers and back to a transmitter sensor. A small time-dependent length modulation is applied to a feed fiber of each aperture and this modulation enables a hill-climbing servo loop to increase, or in some cases even maximize, a detected intensity. This results in a particular relationship between the phases at all the phase-sampling points. The optical system is then calibrated so that this relationship corresponds to in-phase beams when the optical system is aimed at boresight.

Method and apparatus for maintaining a coherent combined beam during arbitrary steering

A space-time division multiple-access (STDMA) laser communications (lasercom) system and related techniques. The STDMA system includes a plurality of remote nodes and an STDMA access node which uses precise electronic beam steering and beacons to provide access to each of a plurality of remote access nodes by means of both space and time-division multiple access.

Space-time division multiple-access laser communications system

A beam steering system having first diffraction gratings, each one being associated with a corresponding one of a first plurality of grating vectors disposed substantially in a first plane. The gratings diffract optical energy from any one of a plurality of input directions of resonance to a corresponding one of a plurality of output directions. Second diffraction gratings are associated with a second plurality of grating vectors disposed substantially in a second plane. Each one of the second gratings diffracts optical energy from any one of a plurality of input directions of resonance to a corresponding one of a plurality of output directions. An arrangement directs a beam of optical energy to a selected one of the first gratings along a selected one of the plurality of input directions for the selected one of the first gratings, selected to provide the corresponding one of the output directions from the first gratings to be substantially equal to a selected one of the plurality of input directions for the selected one of the second gratings, thereby providing a selectable set of beam output directions.

Wide-angle beam steering system

A transmit/receive module including digitally controlled analog circuits is described. The digital circuits use a logic family adapted for use with analog monolithic integrated circuits. The disclosure also describes a preferred process to provide digital and analog microwave circuits on a common semiconductor substrate.

Digitally controlled monolithic microwave integrated circuits

A non-planar Q-switched ring laser system including a ring laser having a gain medium and a closed optical path lying in at least two distinct planes, and a Q-switch in the closed optical path for automatically varying the loss in the closed optical path.

Non-planar Q-switched ring laser system

A phased array antenna system having an array of antenna elements coupled to radio frequency energy feed network through a plurality of phase shifter sections with digital control data being fed to the phase shifter sections with radio frequency energy signal modulated with the digital control data. A modulator is fed by the source of the radio frequency energy and a modulating signal to produce the modulated radio frequency energy signal. A modulating signal generator/encoder, fed by the digital control data, encodes each bit of such digital control data into the modulating signal, such modulating signal being a bipolar signal having a pair of electrical signal changes corresponding to a binary state represented by such bit. The modulated radio frequency energy signal may be fed to the demodulator through the radio frequency feed network or through the antenna element coupled thereto. The demodulator section produces a demodulated bipolar signal corresponding to the bipolar modulating signal and decodes the demodulated bipolar signal into a binary signal having logic states corresponding to the binary states represented by the encoded bits of the bipolar modulating signal. An output section is fed by the detector and decoder section for converting the binary signal produced by the detector and decoder section into the digital words for the phase shifter section. The digital control data includes a strobe signal. The plurality of phase shifter sections act to properly configure themselves to radio frequency energy passing therethrough in accordance with control words addressed thereto in response to detection of the strobe signal.

Antenna system

An ellipsoidal reflector is provided for a light energy emitting lamp which is used as a heating element within an oven. Because an ellipsoidal reflector is used, the light energy emitting lamp may be positioned at the first focal point of the ellipsoidal reflector in order to concentrate light reflected by the ellipsoidal reflector on the food being cooked. Accordingly, a charbroiled surface effect common to gas or electric cooking grills is produced. The light energy emitting lamp may also be moved away from the first focal point so that light is reflected by the ellipsoidal reflector more uniformly.

Adjustable ellipsoidal reflector for food heating apparatus

A low cost automatic frequency control system measures short duration radio frequencies with high a degree of accuracy within 0.5 MHz. The system is programmable to allow applicability over a wide range of frequencies within the required accuracy and various signal durations. The system includes circuits to digitize the source signal to a digital pulse train and asynchronously sample the pulse train to obtain a count of the positive edges of the pulses over a sufficient number of samples. A microprocessor computes the statistical average of the count and accurately determines the frequency of the source signal. The system further includes a feedback path to implement correction to the source signal based on the measured frequency.

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Concord, MA, United States of America

Irl W Smith