Progress on the development of the optical communications demonstrator

The Optical Communications Demonstrator (OCD) is a laboratory-based lasercom demonstration terminal designed to validate several key technologies, including beacon acquisition, high bandwidth tracking, precision beam pointing, and point-ahead compensation functions. It has been under active development over the past few years. The instrument uses a CCD array detector for both spatial acquisition and high-bandwidth tracking, and a fiber coupled laser transmitter. The array detector tracking concept provides wide field-of-view acquisition and permits effective platform jitter compensation and point-ahead control using only one steering mirror. The use of a fiber-coupled transmitter modularizes the transmitter design and de-couples its thermal management problems from the main system optics. The reduction in design complexity can lead to a reduced system cost and an improved system reliability. This paper describes recent progress on the development of the OCD terminal.