Dr. Hugh Podmore Profile

Dr. Hugh Podmore

Optical Systems Engineer at Honeywell Aerospace

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Publications (6)

Proceedings Article | 17 March 2023 Presentation

Design and analysis of on-chip optical phase array systems for satellite communications

Hugh Podmore, Akash Chauhan, Brett Poulsen, Michael Zylstra, Xiaochen Xin, Mackenzie Essington, Ahmed Elsharabasy, M. Ruhul Fatin, Nicholas Zonta, Greg Iu, Alan Scott, Tamara Djokic, Jayshri Sabarinathan, Winnie Ye, Amr Helmy, Regina Lee

Proceedings Volume PC12425, PC124250H (2023) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2657144

KEYWORDS: Satellite communications, Optical arrays, Telecommunications, Satellites, Free space optics, Optical components, Optical communications, Free space optical communications, Control systems, Chemical elements

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Proceedings Article | 11 June 2021 Open Access

QKD terminal for Canada’s Quantum Encryption and Science Satellite (QEYSSat)

H. Podmore, I. D'Souza, J. Cain, T. Jennewein, B. Higgins, Y. S. Lee, A. Koujelev, D. Hudson, A. McColgan

Proceedings Volume 11852, 118520H (2021) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2599162

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Honeywell Aerospace is implementing on behalf of the Canadian Space Agency the Quantum Encryption and Science Satellite (QEYSSat), a Canadian-owned and operated scientific and technology demonstration mission aimed at developing the next-generation of secure communications infrastructure backed by quantum physics. The mission management is led by the Canadian Space Agency and the science is led by the Institute for Quantum Computing at the University of Waterloo. Quantum key distribution (QKD) is a method for issuing, via single-photon transmission, verifiably-confidential encryption keys between two parties. This capability is a powerful tool for the transfer of sensitive data (e.g. financial transactions, health records, etc.), however current terrestrial QKD networks are limited to a few hundred kilometres in geographic reach between nodes. The QEYSSat mission will use a satellite receiver as a trusted node to demonstrate the distribution of secure keys between ground stations separated by at least 400 km. In addition, Honeywell intends to fly an optical intersatellite link (OISL) terminal as a hosted payload on this mission. The QEYSSat mission will utilize both weak coherent pulse (WCP) sources and entangled photon sources in an uplink configuration to study the performance of QKD, and to perform Bell tests of long-range quantum entanglement. Honeywell is building the QKD receiver terminal consisting of a front-end telescope, a precision pointing and tracking system and single-photon detectors. Major technical challenges include polarization management throughout the optical chain, accurate pointing and tracking, and suppression of background and stray light sources. To address these challenges, Honeywell is leveraging its existing commercial optical communications solutions to meet the more stringent performance requirements for space-based QKD. The QKD terminal architecture consists of an afocal front-end telescope, a wide FOV high-precision pointing and tracking assembly, a polarization analyzer and single-photon photodetector system. A large-diameter on-axis telescope for geostationary optical communications forms the basis for the terminal’s front-end optics, and Honeywell’s commercial Optical Pointing and Tracking Relay Assembly for intersatellite Communications (OPTRAC) has been adapted as a quantum-ready pointing and tracking unit (QTRAC). For each element, substantial effort has been made to develop an optical system that preserves single-photon states with high fidelity despite the large number of optical surfaces in the chain. The optical assembly for the QKD terminal was developed and tested at the breadboard level in 2020; this paper will highlight the development and testing of these units as well as the overall architecture and concept of the QEYSSat mission.

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Proceedings Article | 11 November 2020 Open Access

The QEYSSAT mission: on-orbit demonstration of secure optical communications network technologies (Erratum)

A. Scott, T. Jennewein, J. Cain, I. D'Souza, B. Higgins, D. Hudson, H. Podmore, W. Soh

Proceedings Volume 11532, 115320Q (2020) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2589489

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Proceedings Article | 20 September 2020 Presentation + Paper

The QEYSSAT mission: on-orbit demonstration of secure optical communications network technologies

A. Scott, T. Jennewein, J. Cain, I. D'Souza, B. Higgins, D. Hudson, H. Podmore, W. Soh

Proceedings Volume 11532, 115320H (2020) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2574154

KEYWORDS: Optical communications, Optical networks, Quantum key distribution, Network security, Defense and security, Free space optics, Free space, Collimation, Optical tracking, Safety

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Proceedings Article | 17 May 2018 Paper

Spectral retrieval techniques for high-resolution Fourier-transform micro-spectrometers

Alaine Herrero-Bermello, Aitor Velasco, Hugh Podmore, Pavel Cheben, Jens Schmid, Siegfried Janz, María Calvo, Dan-Xia Xu, Alan Scott, Regina Lee

Proceedings Volume 10683, 1068319 (2018) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2306130

KEYWORDS: Waveguides, Calibration, Fourier transforms, Silicon, Spectral resolution, Spectrometers, Interferometers, Transmittance, Heterodyning

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Proceedings Article | 22 February 2018 Presentation + Paper

A compressive-sensing Fourier-transform on-chip Raman spectrometer

Hugh Podmore, Alan Scott, Regina Lee

Proceedings Volume 10539, 105390L (2018) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2288375

KEYWORDS: Fourier-transform interferometers, Integrated optics, Planar waveguides, Microlens array, Compressed sensing, Raman spectroscopy, Waveguides, Spectroscopy, Calibration, Micromirrors, Fourier transforms

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Showing 5 of 6 publications

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