Viewing posts for the category Ultrasensitive Instrument Design

Long-range IR transceiver

For a large Far Eastern consumer electronics manufacturer to use in virtual reality games. A greatly improved transimpedance amplifier got them a factor of 10 in range (30 m vs. 3 m) for about the same amount of power.

Aircraft Carrier Flight Deck Optical Communications Link

Photon Budget and Optical Data Receiver
This one was a somewhat similar application for the Navy.

Ad Hoc Optical Battlefield Network: Optical Data Receiver

This was a collaboration with Chris Wieland of Della Enterprises on an Army Research contract.

Downhole Interferometry: Cavity-Stabilized 1550-nm Laser

This was in collaboration with a start-up in New Mexico called Symphony Acoustics. Downhole measurements are notoriously difficult, and this one was no exception: building a laser that could achieve an Allan variance of 10-10 at 10,000 seconds, and do it 5000 feet down a 2-inch cased drillhole. Due to the casing thickness, the maximum outer diameter of the instrument package was 38 mm, including its own casing and two concentric zones of thermal control.

Nuclear Nonproliferation: 100-MHz Noise Cancelling Front End

This was in cooperation with Mesa Photonics of Santa Fe NM. It's part of a DOE program, an advanced deployable solar occultation spectrometer for detecting volatile plumes from clandestine uranium enrichment.