Laser Communications.

Quartus has designed and built ground and space-based laser communication terminals, including: gimble mechanics for tracking and pointing; atmospheric modeling and implementation of fast steering mirrors and adaptive optics; telescopes; and optical heads.

CAPABILITIES

GROUND AND SPACE TERMINALS

Complete Station Development

  • Telescopes, uplink & downlink channels
  • Mount model, controls, and automation
  • Adaptive optic solutions

LEO Optical Head Development

  • Optical and opto-mechanics
  • Beam expansion telescopes
  • Space rated athermalized fiber collimator
  • Assembly, integration, and test

Link Budget

  • Pointing requirements  
  • WFE requirements  
  • Jitter requirements  
  • Impacts from atmosphere  

Space Mechanisms Design

  • Coarse pointing assemblies
  • Launch / lock mechanisms
  • Custom gimbal designs

 

 

 

 

Example of a phase screen cross
section of the atmosphere used
to model atmospheric transmission
Snapshots of beam the irradiance
profile propagating from the satellite to
ground receiver through atmosphere
Snapshots of the laser point spread function on
the focal plane array over time

 

CASE STUDY

Atmospheric Propagation Modeling

Quartus has delivered and commissioned a complete ground terminal and low earth orbit optical head for free space laser communication.
 

Quartus was heavily involved in requirements definition and systems engineering, including the optical link budget.

In order to determine if atmospheric effects could be sufficiently corrected by incorporated adaptive optics, Quartus performed atmospheric modeling using internally developed wave propagation tools, MODTRAN, and HELEEOS.