Design, implementation, and characterization of an optical multi-carrier demultiplexerdemodulator for satellite on-board processing

In order to keep up with the ever-increasing demand in communications, photonic technology, that has potential benefits in low power consumption, large bandwidth, reduction in payload mass and volume, and electromagnetic interference immunity, offers an alternative approach for the future communication satellites. An optical multi-carrier demultiplexer/demodulator (MCDD) system using acousto-optic technology has been built and characterized for satellite on-board processing (OBP). In this work, the design and implementation of this demonstrator are presented. The challenges for introducing the optical technologies are also discussed for the optics, optical packaging, and opto-electronics. The system was characterized and demonstrated a channel capacity of 438 channels with a power consumption of 63.9mW per channel