Date: Wednesday, April 28, 2021

Time: 10:30 pm MDT

Duration: 2 hour

To Join: Visit this https://zoom.us/j/97732126662?pwd=VFV4ajQ5YjEzMXVtWTVpaTh2dmVpdz09

Meeting ID: 977 3212 6662Passcode: waves

Abstract:

Both the scientific and the defense communities wish to receive and process information occupying ever-wider portions of the electromagnetic spectrum. This can often create an analog-to-digital conversion “bottleneck”. Analog photonic channelization, linearization, and frequency conversion systems can be designed to alleviate this bottleneck. Moreover, the low loss and dispersion of optical fiber and integrated optical waveguides enable most of the components in a broadband sensing or communication system, including all of the analog-to-digital and digital processing hardware, to be situated many feet or even miles from the antennas or other sensors with almost no performance penalty. The anticipated presentation will highlight the advantages and other features of analog photonic systems (including some specific systems that the author has constructed and tested for the US Department of Defense), and will review and explain multiple techniques for optimizing their performance.

Bio:

Edward I. Ackerman received his B.S. degree in electrical engineering from Lafayette College in 1987 and his Ph.D. in electrical engineering from Drexel University in 1994. From 1989 through 1994 he was employed as a microwave photonics engineer at GE’s Electronics Laboratory in Syracuse, New York. From 1995 to July 1999 he was a member of the Technical Staff at MIT Lincoln Laboratory. For both institutions he designed high-performance analog photonic links for microwave communications and antenna remoting applications. Since 1999 he has been Vice President of R & D for Photonic Systems, Inc. of Billerica, Massachusetts. Dr. Ackerman is a Fellow of the IEEE.