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New Design Dramatically Reduces Telescope Footprint for Free Space Communications,
Astronomy, Laser Radar, Remote Sensing, Military and Microscopy Applications
Vancouver, Canada – March 30, 2004 - fSONA Communications,
a leading provider of optical wireless networking equipment, today announced
that the United States Patent and Trademark office has granted the company
a patent for its innovative compact telescope design.
fSONA’s invention, U.S. Patent No. 6,667,831 covers a compact optical
system described as a modified Gregorian telescope. The compact telescope
is derived from a standard Gregorian system by flipping the secondary mirror
over a folding mirror in the middle of the optical path between the primary
and secondary mirrors. In this manner, the primary mirror is constructed
with a concentric “double-curved” geometry. The result is a
Compact Gregorian Telescope that can be as short as 1/7th the focal length
of the system.
Although the Gregorian telescope was first developed in the 17th century,
a Compact Gregorian Telescope was not possible until recently when techniques
for producing diamond-turned mirrors were readily available. This diamond-turning
process is what allows for the production of a “double-curved”
mirror surface.
“The Compact Gregorian Telescope dramatically decreases the footprint
for a Gregorian telescope but more importantly it eliminates the need for
expensive and time-consuming alignments between two curved surfaces”
comments Vladimir Draganov, fSONA’s Sr. Optical Engineer and the inventor
of the Compact Gregorian Telescope. “An added bonus is that, because
there is only one curved surface to machine, manufacturing costs are greatly
reduced.” In addition, both reliability and response to temperature
change is improved due to the accuracy of the diamond turning process.
fSONA’s SONAbeam product line has always provided the best link margins
and availability in the industry due to the high-powered 1550nm lasers in
each system. Recently, fSONA improved the link margins of their already
powerful systems by switching from PIN to more sensitive APD detectors.
The addition of the diamond-turned mirrors from the Compact Gregorian Telescope
design adds a further layer of reliability to an already outstanding system.
Applications for the Compact Gregorian Telescope in addition to free space
communications include astronomy, night vision, laser radar, remote sensing,
military, space (telescopes), and microscopy. In addition to being incorporated
into fSONA’s SONAbeam product line, a modified version of our telescope
is currently in use by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories for a variety
of applications.
About Lawrence Livermore Labs
Founded in 1952, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory is a national security
laboratory, with a mission to ensure national security and apply science
and technology to the important issues of our time. Lawrence Livermore National
Laboratory is managed by the University of California for the U.S. Department
of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration.
About fSONA
fSONA Systems is recognized as the preferred provider of optical wireless solutions for government, enterprise and service provider markets around the globe. Leveraging leading edge advancements in 1550nm optical transmission, the SONAbeam™ family of systems, based on free-space-optics (FSO), use a globally unlicensed, wireless technology to provide speeds up to 2.5 Gbps over distances up to 7km. For more information visit www.fsona.com
or www.free-space-optics.org
Further Information
For more information about fSONA, SONAbeam or Free-Space Optical Wireless, please contact:
604-273-6333
media@fsona.com
fSONA and SONAbeam® are trademarks of fSONA Networks. All other trademarks are properties of their respective companies.
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