Photoconductive sensors for distributed optical sensing

Author

Barg, J.E. ; Jin, X. ; Wiltshire, M. ; Abolhasani, M. ; Holzman, J.F.

Author_Institution

Integrated Opt. Lab., Univ. of British Columbia Okanagan, Kelowna, BC, Canada

fYear

2010

fDate

2-5 May 2010

Firstpage

1

Lastpage

4

Abstract

A new photoconductive (PC) architecture for sensing in distributed free-space optical (FSO) communication environments is presented. The structure is comprised of three independent and mutually orthogonal PC switches, with 450 μm gap widths, arranged in a corner-cube structure. The corner-cube nature of the orientation allows for retroreflection and bi-directional communication in FSO uplink modes. Moreover, biasing is applied to the three exterior PC terminals at three distinct frequencies, such that the output voltage recorded on the interior electrode can be used to triangulate the incident orientation of the illumination (by differencing and comparing the three PC channel signal strengths). The device is fabricated and tested, and the results are presented here for signal reception and triangulation in multiple orientations.

Keywords

optical communication; photoconducting devices; FSO uplink modes; distributed optical sensing; free-space optical communication; illumination; interior electrode; photoconductive architecture; photoconductive sensors; signal reception; signal triangulation; Fiber optics; Optical device fabrication; Optical receivers; Optical sensors; Optical switches; Optical transmitters; optical communication; photoconductive switch; retroreflection; triangulation;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Electrical and Computer Engineering (CCECE), 2010 23rd Canadian Conference on

Conference_Location

Calgary, AB

ISSN

0840-7789

Print_ISBN

978-1-4244-5376-4

Electronic_ISBN

0840-7789

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/CCECE.2010.5575221

Filename

5575221