Miniature Piezo Fast Steering Mirror for Optical Communication in NanoSats and CubeSats

Abstract:
Access to data has become vital and strategical for individuals and nations, Earth planet preservation and monitoring, and mobility applications. In this context, the number of satellite constellations projects is growing drastically worldwide and is a next generation challenge of the New Space cost efficient industry. To replace radio frequencies (RF) communications, space optical communication will be the new trend, addressing both very high speed and as secured encrypted communication improvements. Fast Steering Mirrors (FSM) are a key component used in optical communication, and for a large field of functions such as Point Ahead Mechanisms (PAM), Raster Scanning, Beam Steering Mirrors (BSM), Fine Pointing Mechanisms (FPM) and Line of Sight stabilization (LOS). The following paper presents test results of CEDRAT TECHNOLOGIES piezoelectric mini-FSM and associated CCBu20 driving electronics.