US 10,951,307 B1 · Window heater with reduced wavefront distortion

Abstract

An optical communication system includes a free space optical transceiver within a housing to transmit and receive optical communication signals along an optical pathway through a window in the housing. Heating elements applied to the interior surface of the window substantially uniformly heat the window such that the window is kept free from condensation and ice without introducing significant distortions in the wavefront. Accordingly, the heating elements are designed and placed on the window such that the obscuration caused by the presence of the heating elements within the optical pathway and the wavefront distortion caused by temperature gradients within the cross-section of the window in the optical pathway cause less than 1 decibel (dB) in transmission loss as compared to the same system without the heating elements on the window.

Claims19

Dependent claims

An optical communication system comprising:

a free-space optical transceiver inside of a housing;
a window in a side of the housing, the window having an interior surface nearest the transceiver and an opposite exterior surface, the window positioned in an optical pathway of the transceiver;
and
a plurality of heating element segments on the interior surface of the window,
wherein at least two of the plurality of heating element segments adjacent to each other on the interior surface of the window comprise parallel line segments with varying pitch between them, the pitch decreasing with increasing distance from a point located at or near the center of the window, wherein the parallel line segments are connected by arc segments at ends of the parallel line segments to form one or more groups, each group comprising one contiguous heating element.

2 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Window heater with reduced wavefront distortion

Life of this patent

Window heater with reduced wavefront distortion

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims19