CHIP-SCALE STAR TRACKER

摘要

A chip scale star tracker that captures plane-wave starlight propagating in free space with a wafer-thin angle-sensitive broadband filter-aperture, and directs the light into a waveguide structure for readout. Angular information about the star source is determined from characteristics of the starlight propagating in the waveguide. Certain examples include internal propagation-constant-based baffling to elimination stray light from extreme angles.

主权项

1. A star tracker comprising:
a layered wafer substrate; a planar waveguide patterned on the layered wafer substrate; a coupling grating disposed on a surface of the planar waveguide and configured to couple incident free-space starlight into the planar waveguide to provide coupled starlight, the planar waveguide being configured to propagate the coupled starlight; and a detector system coupled to the planar waveguide and configured to detect and analyze the coupled starlight propagated by the planar waveguide to determine at least one of an azimuth angle and an elevation angle of a star that is a source of the free-space starlight.