OPTIUM

Customer Spotlight

Optium Corporation provides a superior end-to-end solution for US defense Radio Frequency distribution system.

Optium Corporation recently selected the Polatis DirectLight switch for use in a dynamic Radio Frequency distribution system. The DirectLight all-optical switch, in conjunction with high performance RF to optical conversion products from Optium, provided a superior end to end solution for Optium’s US defense customer.

The benefits of optically distributing RF signals include immunity from Electrormagnetic Interference (EMI), reduced cable size/weight/cost, and the ability to provide longer cable runs with improved RF link performance, as compared to more traditional coaxial based distribution systems.

In a photonic RF distribution system, RF-to-optical converters are located close to the antennae and fiber optic cables are used to distribute the RF signals. The low loss of the fiber optic cables, as compared to more traditional coaxial cables, allow antennae to be located much larger distances from receivers, with great reduction in the size, weight and cost of the distribution cabling.

The performance characteristics of the DirectLight switch make it a very high performance RF switch that works across an extremely broad frequency range (DC to 30+ GHz), thus allowing one switch to handle HF, UHF, VHF and even microwave frequencies. Traditional RF switches can only handle small portions of the total frequency band, suffer from much greater levels of interference from neighboring signals, and have greater signal loss.

In addition, traditional RF switches are only available in small port counts, are physically larger as compared to DirectLight optical switches, require more electrical power, and weigh more.

Applications that require high fidelity and dynamic distribution of RF signals while achieving minimum size, weight and power, can achieve great benefit from a photonic distribution system using the Optium RF to optical conversion products coupled with the Polatis DirectLight switch.

The ultra low insertion loss of the DirectLight switch products ensures that RF link performance is not compromised by signal loss. The unique non-dithered alignment technique employed in DirectLight products provides the only all-optical matrix switch that does not impose amplitude modulation on the signal as it traverses the switch. The low back reflection of DirectLight also ensures that the low noise lasers used in RF over fiber systems are not destabilized thus preserving low link noise margins.

“The Polatis switch is a high performance, all-optical matrix switch that offers all the characteristics required for photonic RF link distribution,” said John DeAndrea, Director of Optical Systems for Optium Corporation.

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