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This paper reports on the design and manufacture of C-band multi-Watt optical fibre amplifiers for satellite laser communications. Three module types have been developed and are presented, outputting optical power of 1W, 3W and 5W respectively. A modular design was adopted for the amplifier so that it can be scaled to different power levels and achieve cost-effectiveness and mass manufacturing, thus enabling application in satellite constellations. Radiation testing demonstrates the robust performance against ionizing radiation levels found in LEO and GEO orbits. All degradations are within system requirements and are recoverable in operation by changing the operational parameters, whilst still complying with end of life power consumption and component de-rating specifications. The amplifiers are able to deliver >1W, >3W and >5W output power at 1550 nm for 100 krad TID based on the measurements performed. An environmental test campaign has demonstrated the robustness of the 5W module against sine and random vibration. Additionally, thermal cycling in vacuum has been performed on an optical breadboard, demonstrating a stable optical output, verifying the robustness of the optical design. G and H unit design and AIT space processes are capable of delivering robust and qualified fibre optic units for deployment in satellite laser communication missions.

Laser communications onboard CubeSats is an emerging technology for enabling high-speed space-based communication links. In this paper we present the development of a 25 cm3 and second iteration 0.3 U CubeSat-class laser transmitter operating at data rates of up to 500 Mbps using OOK modulation and an output power of up to 300 mW over the entire C-band. We present results of the development and characterization of the transmitter. From this testing the design will be demonstrated up to TRL 4/5 with the view for future qualification work and electronics integration.

Our research results concerning a space-dedicated C-band optical amplifier for application in telecommunication satellites are presented in this article. The device is based on a 7-core microstructured fiber where independent access to each core is granted by an all fiber fan-in/ fan-out coupler. The amplifier properties are described as well as its performance after irradiation to a maximal dose of 100 kRad. Also the difference between two kinds of fiber material compositions is discussed with regard to radiation resistance.

In this paper we present erbium doped fibre (EDF) aimed at signal amplification within satellite photonic payload systems operating in C telecommunication band. In such volume-hungry applications, the use of advanced optical transmission techniques such as space division multiplexing (SDM) can be advantageous to reduce the component and cable count.

An experiment which is familiar to most physical chemistry students is the speed of sound based on the Kundt’s tube.[1] The experiment also allows the student to determine the heat-capacity ratio for various gases. The process of changing gases may be more easily accomplished if the microphone in the tube can be fixed in its position relative to the speaker. In this article, this modification to the experiment is discussed in terms of resonance generated in closed pipes.

We demonstrate a silicon photonic 4×1 TTD beamformer operated in real-time. Beamforming of a 1 Gb/s QPSK signal carried at 28 GHz was validated by a fourfold improvement in output amplitude and EVM.