公开(公告)号：US10469177B1

公开(公告)日：2019-11-05

申请号：US15943120

申请日：2018-04-02

Applicant: X Development LLC

Inventor： Klaus Ulander

IPC: H04B10/532 ,  H04B10/112

Abstract: The disclosure provides for a method and a system for tracking an optical communication beam based on polarization modulation of the optical communication beam. The method includes polarizing, at a first communication device, an optical communication beam in a polarization pattern. The optical communication beam carries an optical signal. The polarization pattern encodes information by varying between a first polarization direction and at least one second polarization direction. The polarized optical communication beam is then transmitted from the first communication device to a second communication device. At the second communication device, the polarized optical communication beam is processed to extract the encoded information, and the encoded information is used at the second communication device to track the optical communication beam.

公开(公告)号：US10277319B2

公开(公告)日：2019-04-30

申请号：US15889193

申请日：2018-02-05

Applicant: X DEVELOPMENT LLC

Inventor： Robert Steinkraus ,  Klaus Ulander

IPC: H04B10/118 ,  H04B10/11 ,  H04B10/29

Abstract: The method includes receiving axis signals from a multi-axis position sensing detector, generating a reference signal by summing the axis signals, determining a mirror position of a mirror directing the optical beam based on the beam position error of each axis of the multi-axis position sensing detector, and actuating the mirror to move to the mirror position. Each axis signal is indicative of a beam position of an optical beam incident on the multi-axis position sensing detector, each axis signal corresponding to an axis of the multi-axis position sensing detector. For each axis of the multi-axis position sensing detector, the method includes converting a phase of an axis to have a 90 degree phase difference from a signal of the axis, generating an axis-phasor signal by summing the axis signals, and comparing the axis-phasor signal and the reference signal to determine a phase difference.