Summary

Description

<p>The objective of the proposal work is to investigate the highly innovative conceptual design of an optical communication selective frequency transmitter terminal that enables the selection of multiple high-frequency microwave bands (L, S, X, Ku, Ka, V, W Bands ranging from 1 GHz to 100 GHz), while still maintaining the high-data-rate transmission of more than several tens of Giga bits per second. The primary technical objective to be achieved will be a demonstration of a functional optical selective frequency transmitter terminal for multiple microwave frequencies, specifically the X and Ka frequency bands, which are presently used for NASA space communications. We will show the feasibility of transmitting multiple high-frequency bands with the wavelength-division-multiplexing (WDM) technique over a fiber optical network by utilizing a wideband electro-optic modulator and tunable laser semiconductor diode. An important technical merit of this concept, which is based on a WDM technique, is the fact that it does not need complex protocols to handle data and can thereby greatly simplify the structure of the transmitter. This configuration of a WDM system at the transmitter end only requires a few components such as a multiplexing module, electro-optic modulator, control electronics terminal, tunable laser, and telescope. At the receiver end, the terminal has an optical filter (de-multiplexer) to select the transmitted frequency. After the filter, the optical signal is converted to an electrical signal by a photodiode and amplified by a pre-amplifier.</p>