Detectors & Imaging

Leti and Mynaric partner on APDs for FSO aircraft/drone/satellite constellation networks

April 12, 2018

The collaboration centers on the next generation of avalanche photodiodes (APDs) for laser communications.

Mynaric is partnering with Leti on APD technology for laser communications used both in space between drones and satellites and for earth-to-space communications.

Mynaric (Gilching, Germany), a manufacturer of laser communication technologies used to establish communication networks in air and space, has formed an exclusive partnership with Leti, a French research institute at CEA Tech, on a key technological development in high-speed communication. Mynaric says the collaboration centers on the next generation of avalanche photodiodes (APDs) for telecommunication systems with an improved performance level far exceeding the already record-breaking values achieved by Mynaric's laser communication products.

The development targets laser communication products for large technical companies set on satellite and high-altitude constellations comprised of hundreds—and, in some cases, thousands—of units. The exclusive agreement positions Mynaric as prime supplier for these constellation networks of interconnected aircraft, drones, and satellites.

Companies building constellations in space, in the stratosphere, as well as in commercial airspace will see numerous benefits reflected in this key upgrade to Mynaric's laser communication systems with the technology yielding considerable improvements in distance and offering the potential to significantly decrease system complexity. Importantly for the aerospace industry, this reduced system complexity is expected to lead to lower production costs, size, weight and power (SWaP) consumption of Mynaric's laser communication units, expanding the economic viability and market reach of laser communications.

Johan Rothman, detector-physics scientist at Leti, said, "The collaboration with Mynaric is a great opportunity to boost the development of HgCdTe APDs to reach the required speed for high data rate telecommunications. Demonstrating this performance will open an important commercial perspective and a path to a fast industrialization of the detectors. It also will accelerate time to market of detectors optimized for scientific applications, such as atmospheric LIDAR and spectroscopy."

The exceptionally high-performance photo diode that has been developed by Leti offers sensitivity improvements at least 10 times greater than existing sensitivity. This allows for more than double the current link distance or significant simplification of systems.

Wolfram Peschko, CEO of Mynaric, added, "The cooperation between Mynaric and Leti highlights the importance that our joint creativity plays in pushing to give already highly successful technical products heightened performance and make them more affordable and indispensable in the march towards equipping constellations to enable global internet connectivity. It is by diversifying our technological partnerships—adding the years of experience and research from Leti to that we have gained from our long-standing partnership with the German Aerospace Center (DLR)—that helps us to further improve our products and prioritize the commercialization and serialization of the laser communication products that the market needs."

SOURCE: Mynaric; https://mynaric.com/2018/04/mynaric-announces-exclusive-partnership-with-leti-for-market-changing-laser-communications-technology/

About the Author

Gail Overton | Senior Editor (2004-2020)

Gail has more than 30 years of engineering, marketing, product management, and editorial experience in the photonics and optical communications industry. Before joining the staff at Laser Focus World in 2004, she held many product management and product marketing roles in the fiber-optics industry, most notably at Hughes (El Segundo, CA), GTE Labs (Waltham, MA), Corning (Corning, NY), Photon Kinetics (Beaverton, OR), and Newport Corporation (Irvine, CA). During her marketing career, Gail published articles in WDM Solutions and Sensors magazine and traveled internationally to conduct product and sales training. Gail received her BS degree in physics, with an emphasis in optics, from San Diego State University in San Diego, CA in May 1986.