Free-space laser optical link simulation software

GDAF (Displays and Photonics Applications Group) in Electronics Technology Department at University Carlos III de Madrid develops a hardware-software application for a communications free-space optical link, in a Project with INSA corp. It aims to substitute the usual radio frequencies link, because of the increasing of bandwidth and the guarantee of privacity. Optics and electronics collaboration is searched

Software de simulación de un enlace óptico de comunicaciones por láser

El Grupo de Displays y Aplicaciones Fotónicas (GDAF) del Departamento de Tecnología Electrónica de la Universidad Carlos III de Madrid desarrolla una aplicación software - hardware para un enlace óptico de comunicaciones en espacio profundo, en un Proyecto con la empresa INSA (Ingeniería y Servicios Aeroespaciales S.A.). Pretende sustituir a los tradicionales enlaces por radiofrecuencia, pues aumenta el ancho de banda y garantiza la privacidad. Se busca colaboración en óptica y electrónica

Characterization and applications of New Electrochromic and Suspended Particle Devices

GDAF (Displays and Photonics Applications Group) in Electronics Technology Department at University Carlos III de Madrid research on electrochromic and suspended particle devices. It offers the characterization, the search for applications and design and implementation of optimized electronic control systems. These devices are used in smart windows and mirrors, optical communications, ophthalmic filters, etc. The advantages are mainly the power consumption and easiness of switching. Sepecific advantages arise in each application. Companies or institutions are searched that develop these devices, in order to establish collaboration about characterizations and control systems optimization

Caracterización y aplicaciones de Nuevos dispositivos Electrocrómicos y de partículas suspendidas

El Grupo de Displays y Aplicaciones Fotónicas (GDAF) del Departamento de Tecnología Electrónica de la Universidad Carlos III de Madrid investiga en dispositivos de material electrocrómico y de partículas suspendidas. Ofrece la caracterización de los mismos, la búsqueda de aplicaciones y el diseño e implementación de sistemas electrónicos de control optimizado. El uso de estos dispositivos se produce en ventanas inteligentes, espejos, comunicaciones ópticas, filtros oftalmológicos, etc. Las ventajas de estos dispositivos son el consumo y la facilidad de conmutación. Ventajas específicas surgen de las diferentes aplicaciones. Se buscan empresas o instituciones que desarrollen este tipo de dispositivos para colaborar en su caracterización y optimizar los sistemas de control

Design and early development of a UAV terminal and a ground station for laser communications

A free-space laser communication system has been designed and partially developed as an alternative to standard RF links from UAV to ground stations. This project belongs to the SINTONIA program (acronym in Spanish for low environmental-impact unmanned systems), led by BR&TE (Boeing Research and Technology Europe) with the purpose of boosting Spanish UAV technology. A MEMS-based modulating retroreflector has been proposed as a communication terminal onboard the UAV, allowing both the laser transmitter and the acquisition, tracking and pointing subsystems to be eliminated. This results in an important reduction of power, size and weight, moving the burden to the ground station. In the ground station, the ATP subsystem is based on a GPS-aided two-axis gimbal for tracking and coarse pointing, and a fast steering mirror for fine pointing. A beacon-based system has been designed, taking advantage of the retroreflector optical principle, in order to determine the position of the UAV in real-time. The system manages the laser power in an optimal way, based on a distance-dependent beam-divergence control and by creating two different optical paths within the same physical path using different states of polarization.Comment: 9 pages, 12 figures. Appears in Proceedings of the SPIE Security+Defence (Prague, Czech Republic, 2011

Electrical analysis of new all-plastic electrochromic devices

New all-plastic electrochromic devices have been manufactured using commercial PEDOT foils and classical polymer electrolyte electrodeposition techniques. Several devices with different areas have been electrically characterized by using an impedance spectroscopy technique. After a brief description of the manufacturing process, we discuss electrical properties with the size of the device. Real and imaginary parts of the impedance have been plotted as a function of frequency. Some interesting conclusions have been derived from those plots, and some improvements in manufacturing process of this kind of devices are also proposed.Publicad

A low-cost LED-Based solar simulator

Solar simulators are a fundamental instrument to characterize solar cells parameters, as they can reproduce the operating conditions under which the solar cells are going to work. However, these systems are frequently big, heavy, and expensive, and a small solar simulator could be a good contribution to test small prototyping devices manufactured in research labs, especially if it could manage the irradiation at any wavelength interval in a custom way. We have designed, developed, and calibrated a small solar simulator made entirely with LEDs, no optics inside, and electronically controlled through a PC using an Arduino microcontroller. The whole structure is 3-D printed in black PLA plastic. The electrical current through the LEDs, and thus the spectral irradiance of the simulator, is controlled with a very intuitive LabVIEW interface. As our calibration proves, we have built an easily reproducible and low-cost Class AAA solar simulator in a central illumination area of 1 cm 2 , according to the IEC60904-9 standard. This means that the homogeneity in that area is under a 2% deviation in spatial terms, below 0.5% in temporal terms, and is a factor of a 3% close to the AM1.5G sun reference spectrum. The system can be built and used in any research lab to get quick tests of new small solar cells of any material.This work was supported in part by the Spanish Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad through AEI/FEDER, UE Funds under Grant TEC2016-77242-C3-1-R and in part by the Comunidad de Madrid SINFOTON-CM Research Program under Grant S2013/MIT-2790. The work of E. López-Fraguas was supported by the Ministerio de Educación y Formación Profesional for his Doctoral Grant through FPU Research Fellowship under Grant FPU17/00612

In-axis reception by polarization discrimination in a modulating-retroreflector-based free-space optical communication link

A new optical configuration is proposed for ground stations designed to receive information from modulating-retroreflector-based terminals in a free-space optical communication link. This configuration is based on the polarization discrimination of the ground station laser sent to the remote terminal. It achieves the optimal usage of the laser power, which is a key parameter in modulating-retroreflector-based links. A simulation has been made in order to model the system in terms of power losses and states of polarization and an experimental setup has been implemented to verify the validity of the simulation. A gain of over 6 dB has been measured using the new setup compared with a simple trajectory discrimination setup, achieving a very good agreement with the prediction.Publicad