HIGH RESOLUTION ACOUSTO-OPTIC DEVICES FOR OPTICAL SIGNAL PROCESSING

ACOUSTO-OPTIC (A-O) BRAGG CELLS PLAY AN IMPORTANT ROLE IN SIGNAL PROCESSING SYSTEMS DUE TO THEIR REAL TIME PROCESSING CAPABILITIES, AS WELL AS THEIR CONVERSION CAPABILITIES OF A FUNCTION OF TIME TO A FUNCTION OF SPACE AND TIME. IN THIS PROGRAM, BRIMROSE WILL INVESTIGATE, DESIGN AND FABRICATE STATE-OF-THE-ART ACOUSTO-OPTIC DEVICES MADE OUT OF TEO2 MATERIAL AND DESIGN TO INCREASE THEIR BANDWIDTH (UP TO 80 MHZ) TO INCREASE THE OPTICAL APERTURE (UP TO 50 US) AND INCREASE THEIR DIFFRACTION EFFICIENCY, THROUGH THE USE OF ACOUSTO-OPTIC DESIGN TECHNIQUES SUCH AS ACOUSTIC BEAM STEERING (PHASED ARRAY TECHNOLOGY) AND TANGENTIAL PHASE MATCHING OF ANISOTROPING BRAGG DIFFRACTION. THE SIGNIFICANT REDUCTION IN ACOUSTIC POWER ACCOMPANYING THESE TECHNIQUES ALSO LEADS TO THE REDUCTION OF THE INTERMODULATION PRODUCTS, INCREASING THE DEVICE DYNAMIC RANGE, HENCE INCREASING THE OVERALL PERFORMANCE OF THE SIGNAL PROCESSING SYSTEM. TWO TYPES OF SHEAR MODE TEO2 DEVICES WILL BE INVESTIGATED USING ?110? AND ?001? AS ACOUSTIC WAVE PROPAGATION DIRECTIONS. EACH DEVICE WILL HAVE APODIZED PHASED ARRAY TYPE TRANSDUCER FOR MAXIMUM PERFORMANCE IMPROVEMENT. SHOULD THIS WORK BECOME CLASSIFIED, BRIMROSE HAS A SECRET FACILITY CLEARANCE. ALSO, UNDER THE SBA FROM THE OFFICE OF INNOVATION RESEARCH AND TECHNOLOGY'S SIXTH YEAR RESULTS TO CONGRESS, JUNE 1989, BRIMROSE WAS SELECTED FROM 9,000 COMPANIES FOR OUTSTANDING SBIR COMMERCIALIZATION PROGRESS AND SUCCESS.