CAMPBELL, Calif.–Laser communications designers at the Northrop Grumman Corp. Electronic Systems sector in Baltimore are choosing AOptix Technologies Inc. in Campbell, Calif., to design and build the free-space optical terminals for the Optical Relay Communications Architecture (ORCA) project–an adverse-weather, high-connectivity, jam-resistant, high-bandwidth network.

The ORCA project is sponsored by the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) in Arlington, Va., and is under supervision of the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio.

AOptix Technologies will provide modified laser communications terminals for air-to-air and air-to-ground applications. Northrop Grumman will demonstrate a prototype of a tactical optical and RF network containing ground-based and airborne nodes.

AOptix Technologies and the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Baltimore demonstrated ultra-high-bandwidth laser communications between two mountaintops in Hawaii simulating an air-to-air link. AOptix curvature-adaptive optics technology was essential for correcting atmospheric disturbances in a variety of conditions.

“Our lasercom terminals will open up enormous bandwidth with data speeds that are orders of magnitude beyond the capability of systems in use,” says Dean Senner, president and chief executive officer of AOptix.

For more information, visit AOptix online at www.aoptix.com.