Miniature Optical Steerable Antenna for Intersatellite Communications Liquid Lens Characterization

Fogle, Faisal; Čierny, Ondrej; Pereira, Paula do Vale; Kammerer, William; Cahoy, Kerri

doi:10.1109/aero47225.2020.9172448

Cited by 8 publications

(19 citation statements)

References 6 publications

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“…Due to their compact design, relatively low cost and wide availability, ETLs have been used in combination with a variety of systems, including those with an ophthalmological purpose (e.g. optical coherence tomography platforms; Grulkowski et al, 2018;Tao et al, 2014), endoscopes (Zou et al, 2015), laparoscopes (Qin and Hua, 2016;Volpi et al, 2017), profilometry systems utilising projectors to enable machine vision (Hu et al, 2020;Iwai et al, 2015;Zhong et al, 2020), satellite laser communications (Fogle et al, 2020), cameras (Guo et al, 2017;Miau et al, 2013), digital holography (Sanz et al, 2020;Wang et al, 2017), stealth laser wafer dicing (Lee et al, 2020) and head-mounted 3D displays for virtual-or augmented-reality applications (Chang et al, 2019;Konrad et al, 2016Konrad et al, , 2017Llull et al, 2015;Rathinavel et al, 2018;Shen and Javidi, 2018). The broad applicability and commercial availability of ETLs have favoured their incorporation into microscope systems for high-speed 3D imaging of light-sensitive living specimens, as discussed next.…”

Section: Core Principles Of An Etlmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In the future, we expect imaging systems to fully exploit the strength of ETLs in reducing motion artifacts and mechanical complexity, which is particularly advantageous for use in unpredictable new environments. For example, ETLs are being investigated by NASA for use in space (Fogle et al, 2020). ETLs are also being miniaturised by Huawei for implementation in upcoming products, including those in the defence sector (Lide et al, 2020), taking advantage of their compact design, which is ideal for use in smaller spaces, their autofocus and their depth detection, as well as image stabilisation without requiring elaborate hardware.…”

Section: Future Perspectivesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Electrically tunable lenses – eliminating mechanical axial movements during high-speed 3D live imaging

Efstathiou

Draviam

2021

Journal of Cell Science

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The successful investigation of photosensitive and dynamic biological events, such as those in a proliferating tissue or a dividing cell, requires non-intervening high-speed imaging techniques. Electrically tunable lenses (ETLs) are liquid lenses possessing shape-changing capabilities that enable rapid axial shifts of the focal plane, in turn achieving acquisition speeds within the millisecond regime. These human-eye-inspired liquid lenses can enable fast focusing and have been applied in a variety of cell biology studies. Here, we review the history, opportunities and challenges underpinning the use of cost-effective high-speed ETLs. Although other, more expensive solutions for three-dimensional imaging in the millisecond regime are available, ETLs continue to be a powerful, yet inexpensive, contender for live-cell microscopy.

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Section: Core Principles Of An Etlmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Future Perspectivesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Electrically tunable lenses – eliminating mechanical axial movements during high-speed 3D live imaging

Efstathiou

Draviam

2021

Journal of Cell Science

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“…A laboratory prototype that demonstrates hemispherical steering with both Corning and Optotune lenses has been constructed. 5 The prototype for Corning lenses is shown in Figure 3.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, these lenses are only capable of small steering ranges; the Corning A39N0 lenses can achieve a total 1D steering range of 2.7°and the Optotune EL-16-40-TC lenses can achieve a total range of 8.6°. 2,5 Adding a fisheye lens after the liquid lens array expands this range to hemispherical beam steering.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Link analysis for a liquid lens beam steering system, the miniature optical steered antenna for intersatellite communication: MOSAIC

Kacker

Čierny

Boyer

et al. 2021

Free-Space Laser Communications XXXIII

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Laser communications can enable more efficient and higher bandwidth communications across longer distances than conventional radio frequency (RF) systems. However, beam divergence angles for laser systems are narrower than typical RF systems, and require precise pointing, acquisition, and tracking systems to establish and maintain the link. In addition, typical lasercom links are point-to-point, and not capable of multicast or broadcast. Conventional pointing and tracking (PAT) systems use mechanical gimbals or fast-steering mirrors. Mechanical gimbals may not meet the size, weight, and power (SWaP) constraints for small spacecraft, particularly for multiple concurrent spatially diverse beams. Fast-steering mirrors while compact and efficient have limited aperture size, and many would be needed to provide multiple links over a hemisphere.The Miniature Optical Steered Antenna for Intersatellite Communications (MOSAIC) aims to provide nonmechanical pointing and tracking using liquid lenses, allowing a wide field-of-view and support for multiple concurrent links. Initial work with commercially available liquid lenses showed that liquid lenses can be used in a space environment and assessed spatial coverage. In this work, we model a transmitter using three liquid lenses. One on-axis lens provides focusing capability. Two off-axis and perpendicular lenses provide beam steering, with a fisheye lens amplifying the effect. This provides near-hemispherical pointing up to 170 degrees. We investigate beam quality and divergence using a Zemax model and conduct a link analysis dependent on the beam steering angle and rotation angle. A 25 Mbps link with 200 mW transmit power at 1550 nm (optical C band) and 16-ary pulse position modulation (16-PPM) can be maintained up to 28 km separation with 3 dB margin for an Optotune EL-16-40-TC liquid lens. Losses are primarily due to the liquid lenses limiting aperture size to 16 mm. We also consider the impact of diffusers for increasing numerical aperture through a simple ray transfer analysis and experimental results.

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“…For example, to control low-order aberrations, liquid deformable lenses have been tested for space communication applications. 17 However, it still requires high voltage (∼100 V) to control deformation. Magnetic fluid deformable mirrors (MFDMs) provide high surface quality, high precision, and are actuated using magnetic fields generated by low current carrying solenoids but they are limited in degree of freedom, [18][19][20] as they are constrained to operate horizontally under gravity.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Demonstration of magnetic and light-controlled actuation of a photomagnetically actuated deformable mirror for wavefront control

et al. 2021

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Deformable mirrors (DMs) have wide applications ranging from astronomical imaging to laser communications and vision science. However, they often require bulky multichannel cables for delivering high power to their drive actuators. A low-powered DM, which is driven in a contactless fashion, could provide a possible alternative to this problem. We present a photomagnetically actuated deformable mirror (PMADM) concept, which is actuated in a contactless fashion by a permanent magnet and low-power laser heating source. We present the laboratory demonstration of prototype optical surface quality, magnetic control of focus, and COMSOL simulations of its precise photocontrol. The PMADM prototype is made of a magnetic composite (polydimethylsiloxane + ferromagnetic CrO 2 ) and an optical-quality substrate layer and is 30.48 mm × 30.48 mm × 175 μm in dimension with an optical pupil diameter of 8 mm. It deforms to 5.76 μm when subjected to a 0.12-T magnetic flux density and relaxes to 3.76 μm when illuminated by a 50-mW laser. A maximum stroke of 8.78 μm before failure is also estimated considering a 3× safety factor. Our work also includes simulation of astigmatism generation with the PMADM, a first step in demonstrating control of higher order modes. A fully developed PMADM may have potential application for wavefront corrections in vacuum and space environments.

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Miniature Optical Steerable Antenna for Intersatellite Communications Liquid Lens Characterization

Cited by 8 publications

References 6 publications

Electrically tunable lenses – eliminating mechanical axial movements during high-speed 3D live imaging

Electrically tunable lenses – eliminating mechanical axial movements during high-speed 3D live imaging

Link analysis for a liquid lens beam steering system, the miniature optical steered antenna for intersatellite communication: MOSAIC

Demonstration of magnetic and light-controlled actuation of a photomagnetically actuated deformable mirror for wavefront control

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