Inventors:
James C. Administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Fletcher
Theodore Flattau - Dix Hills NY
Ronald Albert Lange - Huntington NY
John Walter Mellars - Westbury NY
Bernard Joseph Peyton - Huntington Station NY
John Martin Wolczok - Farmingdale NY
International Classification:
H03D 124
Abstract:
A wideband heterodyne receiver for a laser communication system is disclosed which includes a front end having a cooled photomixer contained in a hermetically sealed spaced quality housing designed for wide bandwidth transmission. The photomixer is coupled through a wideband preamplifier to the receiver back end which includes a frequency tracking network and demodulating equipment. The receiver is capable of tracking a doppler frequency shift of 750 MHz, positive or negative, and has an instantaneous intermediate frequency information bandwidth of 400 MHz. The receiver system is also capable of operating over a wide temperature range and is designed to be suitable for use in outer space communication.