PROCEEDINGS ARTICLE | May 27, 1998
Proc. SPIE. 3266, Free-Space Laser Communication Technologies X
KEYWORDS: Actuators, Optical fibers, Mirrors, Magnetism, Receivers, Control systems, Telecommunications, Optical communications, Fiber optic communications, Data communications
We have developed two kinds of small size and light weight mechanical devices which consist of 2-axis piezoelectronic driving actuators and elastic hinges for fine pointing mechanism (FPM) and point ahead mechanism (PAM) optical inter- orbit communication (optical IOC) equipment. These are 'Beam Trapping Mechanism (BTM)' and 'Beam Scanning Mechanism (BSM)' respectively. High sensitivity receive system using single- mode optical fiber should be needed to increase communication data rate, which are a receiver of heterodyne detection in optical fiber and a receiver using optical pre-amplifier (for example, Er doped fiber amplifier). Therefore, both improvement of precision of FPM and control of the end of optical fiber are needed. In order to realize these requirements, we have designed, developed and tested two kinds of mechanical devices. At first, results of BTM, which consists of an optical fiber, four piezoelectric actuators, elastic hinges and a housing which mounts them, are described. The end facet of optical fiber supported by elastic hinges is controlled by piezoelectronic actuators in order to trap spatial received beam into optical fiber with high efficiency and high speed. The functional test results of BTM show a moving range of 140 (mu) rad, a resolution of less than 0.2 (mu) rad and natural frequency of 390 Hz. These values show BTM has enough performance for low-loss received beam trapping into optical fiber core. Furthermore, small-sized and lightweight BTM was realized using piezoelectronic actuators. We designed a BSM which has function of piezoelectronic driving 2-axis FPM in order to improve FPM. BSM have mirror of which size is 15 * 12 mm2. The mechanical concept of BSM is as same as BTM. In BSM, mirror is supported by elastic hinges, replace with optical fiber. Function test results show scanning angle range of more than 2.8 mrad at azimuth direction, 2.0 mrad at elevation direction, scanning resolution of 1.0 (mu) rad and natural frequency is 1.1 kHz. Furthermore, BSM is smaller and lighter compared with electro- magnetic devices.
