The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Nov. 21, 2000
Filed:
Jul. 27, 1998
Michael D Rivers, Santee, CA (US);
Trex Communications Corp., San Diego, CA (US);
Abstract
A method and apparatus for setting the wavelength of a laser beacon in a free-space laser communication system. The invention uses the absorption and transmission attributes of a material, such as cesium, to generate a physical environment at the transmitting transceiver that essentially exactly replicates the environment that governs the physics of an atomic line filter at a receiving transceiver that is based on the absorption and transmission attributes of the same material. In general, the invention includes an apparatus for setting the wavelength of a laser beacon in a free-space laser communication system, comprising: a wavelength-tunable laser beacon having an output beam; optical means for directing at least part of the output beam through an absorption cell having at least one absorption peak; a photodetector positioned relative to the absorption cell for detecting wavelengths output from the absorption cell corresponding to a selected range of wavelengths for the output beam; a circuit, coupled to the wavelength-tunable laser beacon and the photodetector, for determining laser beacon tuning parameters corresponding to at least one absorption peak from the detected wavelengths and for setting a wavelength for the output beam corresponding to the determined tuning parameters.