Paper 13100-93
Optical-to-microwave clock synchronization with few-femtosecond residual timing jitter for space ground segments
20 June 2024 • 14:05 - 14:20 Japan Standard Time | Room G214, North - 2F
Abstract
High-precision timing is vital in space communication for tasks like navigation, data transfer, and coordinating satellite constellations. Currently, ground segments rely on microwave clocks, but emerging optical clocks and links offer great improvements in resolution, precision, and stability for next generation systems. However, integrating optical clocks with conventional microwave sources presents a challenge. Our solution, an optical-to-microwave phase detector, addresses this by enabling synchronization with few-femtosecond residual jitter between an optical- and a microwave source. With a phase/timing resolution of 0.01 fs RMS and a noise-floor below 1 fs RMS, this detector becomes a key technology as optical clock adoption grows in ground segments.
Presenter
Cycle GmbH (Germany)
Kemal Shafak earned his B.S. degree in physics from Middle East Technical University, Ankara, Turkey, in 2009. He continued his studies in Germany, obtaining an M.S. degree in Photonics from the University of Jena in 2012 and a Ph.D. degree in Physics from the University of Hamburg in 2017. Throughout his graduate studies, he served as a research assistant at the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Optics and Precision Engineering, Jena, from 2010 to 2012, and at the Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron, Hamburg, from 2012 to 2016. In 2016, he joined Cycle GmbH, where he currently serves as the Head of Timing Technology, leading product development in optical timing distribution and synchronization systems.