Free-space Optical Interconnect for Inter-Satellite Communications

无处不在随着下一代卫星的部署，它们之间需要有效的互连，特别是对于那些为即将到来的空间互联网应用而形成低地球轨道星座的卫星。有限的无线电频谱不足以实现这些通信链路，因此，自由空间光互连（FSOI）有望成为卫星互连的首选技术。来自魁北克柯克兰的Reflex Photonics公司在过去3年中一直为卫星内部的连接提供光学互连解决方案，现在希望探索如何利用其专业知识为空间应用构建FSOI发射机。为此，他们希望继续与UQAM的Ménard教授合作，并在之前Engage项目中获得的关于硅光子调制器的知识的基础上，开发利用该技术的FSOI发射机演示器，并通过模拟研究如何利用硅光子集成的潜力来简化发射机，以使其适用于空间应用。

ubiquitous. As the next generation of satellites is being deployed there is a need for efficient interconnectionsbetween them, especially for those forming low earth orbiting constellations for the coming Internet-of-Spaceapplications. The limited radio frequency spectrum available is not sufficient to implement thesecommunication links, and thus, free-space optical interconnects (FSOIs) are expected to become the technologyof choice to interconnect satellites. Reflex Photonics, a company from Kirkland, Quebec, has been providingoptical interconnect solutions for connections inside satellites for the past 3 years and now wants to explorehow it can leverage its expertise to build FSOI transmitters for space applications. To do this, they want tocontinue their collaboration with Prof. Ménard of UQAM and built on the knowledge gained about siliconphotonic modulators during a previous Engage project to develop a FSOI transmitter demonstrator takingadvantage of this technology and to investigate through simulations how the potential for integration of siliconphotonics could be used to miniaturise the transmitter in order to make it suitable for space applications.