A low cost heterodyne receiver assembly has been designed and fabricated for systems such as the U.S. Army's Multiple Launch Rocket System (MLRS). The receiver assembly was fabricated from `commercial off the shelf' (COTS) components, taking advantage of the low cost of volume production for the dewar, detector, and cryogenic cooler. The design and performance of the heterodyne receiver assembly is the subject of the present paper. With minor modifications to the standard `imaging photodiode' process, heterodyne quantum efficiencies of 30% have been demonstrated at 2 GHz. While the performance achieved so far has been encouraging, further improvements in device design and processing technology can serve to enhance the performance. With these changes, we believe that heterodyne quantum efficiencies of 40% with bandwidth exceeding 3 GHz is achievable. These changes are also expected to reduce the cost of fabrication of these photodiodes.
The operation of an optical communication link employing a Mach-Zehnder Interferometer fabricated from has been demonstrated in a cryogenic environment. Using simulated analog signals from a cryogenic IR focal plane array, the optical transfer of low level electrical signals between the areas of temperature extremes has been demonstrated. The bandwidth, signal to noise, and dynamic range for the link was measured and a relationship for the transfer gain developed. Packaging considerations for long term reliable operation at cryogenic temperatures is addressed.
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