Connor Kupchak
Project Area: Opto-electronics, photonics, communications
Project Title: Development of a Phase-Amplitude Modulation Optical Transmitter-Receiver Prototype
Project Description: This hands-on engineering project challenges five students to design, build and test a complete free-space or visible-light optical communication system that transmits data using phase-amplitude modulation such as QAM formats. Each student independently leads one demanding technical sub-project covering i) transmitter algorithms, ii) optical transmitter hardware, iv) receiver photodetection demodulation processing or v) full system testing and integration while actively contributing to joint alignment troubleshooting and performance evaluation.
Students involved in this project will need to exhibit hard work, innovation, independence, resourcefulness, accountability, problem solving and big-picture thinking to overcome challenges associated with this project. Project deliverables are required to be reported on on a bi-weekly basis. The task associated with this project requires knowledge of common opto-electrical tools and processes as well as data encoding and processing. The end product will be a functional prototype that demonstrates reliable data transfer with measurable bit-error rate and constellation quality.
- Transmitter Signal Generation and Modulation Algorithms
- Optical Transmitter Hardware and Light Source Drive
- Receiver Optics and Photodetection Front-End
- Demodulation Signal Recovery and Digital Processing
- System Integration Performance Testing and Analysis
Desired Technical Skills
- High speed electronics
- Optical circuit design
- Circuit debugging and impedance matching
- Electromagnetic wave theory
- Optical measurement and calibration
- Signal processing
- Gate programming
Suitable for:
ELEC 4908 – Engineering Physics