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US 2009/0046293 A1Published application
Optical Communications Using Spectral Interferometry
AssigneeAttochron, LLC
InventorsJohn Cabaniss, Tom Chaffee
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Optical communications can be performed using spectral interferometry. An incident transmission pulse or beam may be mixed with a locally generated beam or pulse to create an interference pattern that may be analyzed to extract the transmitted data. The incident transmission pulse or beam may also be split and mixed with itself to create an interference pattern.
Claims20
A method comprising:
- receiving transmission light from a transmitter at a receiver, the transmission beam carrying optically encoded data from the transmitter;
- generating an interference pattern from the transmission light, the interference pattern comprising a spatial distribution of light intensities formed from at least one constructive interference band and at least one destructive interference band;
- projecting the interference pattern on a detector;
- and
- reconstructing the encoded data by analyzing the spatial distribution of light in the interference pattern and quantifying intensity differences between the at least one constructive interference band and the at least one destructive interference band.
2 more elements
An optical communication apparatus comprising:
- a detector comprising a light sensitive measurement area;
- one or more optical components that direct incoming transmission light comprising optically encoded data transmitted from a transmitter unit such that the incoming transmission light forms an interference pattern that is projected onto the light sensitive measurement area, the interference pattern comprising a spatial distribution of light intensities formed from at least one constructive interference band and at least one destructive interference band;
- a processor coupled to the detector, the processor reconstructing the encoded data by analyzing the spatial distribution of light in the interference pattern and quantifying intensity differences between the at least one constructive interference band and the at least one destructive interference band.
An optical communication apparatus comprising:
- a detector that comprises a recording camera;
- a mixing laser source that produces mixing laser light at a mixing wavelength;
- one or more optical components that receive and direct incoming transmission laser light comprising optically encoded data transmitted from a transmitter unit such that the incoming transmission laser light is crossed with the mixing laser light to form an interference pattern that is projected onto the detector, the interference pattern comprising a spatial distribution of light intensities formed from at least one constructive interference band and at least one destructive interference band;
- and
- a processor coupled to the detector, the processor capturing a screenshot comprising the interference pattern from the detector and reconstructing the encoded data by analyzing the spatial distribution of light in the interference pattern, quantifying intensity differences between the at least one constructive interference band and the at least one destructive interference band, and returning a digital “on” if the average intensity exceeds a threshold value and a digital “off” if the average intensity does not exceed the threshold value.
2 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.