Micro-Optical Rotary Joint for multichannel communication via a rotating interface

摘要

Data transmission between rotating and stationary systems, e.g. required for radar antennas or for undersea cable installationships can be realized with so called rotary joints. For the transmission of several high bit rate optical data channels amicro optical rotary joint is now available which guarantees a dead reliable, low loss transmission for up to 21 parallelsingle mode channels. The free space transmission in the rotary joint implicates a highly precise collimation of the parallelchannels. For this purpose compact two dimensional fiber collimator arrays based on micro lens arrays have beendeveloped. These arrays and the complete opto-mechanical system are designed with the help of tolerance analysis usingMonte Carlo simulations. Besides these results also some more information on the behavior and the characteristics of themicro optical rotary joint under real conditions which demonstrate the excellent characteristics of this novel system willbe given.