Publications

P-FSM and M-FSM piezoelectric and magnetic fast steering mirrors

September 5, 2023

To meet needs in air, space, defence & other embedded or demanding applications CEDRAT TECHNOLOGIES (CTEC) bas developed for more than 20 years Fast Steering Mirrors (FSM). Typical applications are for example Lidar, free space optical communication (FSO) and Laser interferometry. As the specifications met in these applications can vary, CTEC bas designed and patented different actuation technologies: - FSM based on Amplified Piezo Actuators APA®, as for PHARAO, ATLID, PSYCHE missions, and for future FSO space constellations as well as other large FSM for space & instrumentation as ESO ELT. - FSM based on Magnetic Actuation, as being developed for FSO and CO-OP optical communication toward Geosat. - FSM based on Stepping Piezo Actuators, as for IASI-NG for METOP-SG, as well as other piezomotor-based FSM. The presentation describes the working principle, design and performance of these different actuation concepts.

Progress in piezoelectric fine steering mirrors for optical inter-satellite links in space constellations

February 12, 2026

Free-Space Optical Communication (FSO) is rapidly expanding in space with giant satcom constellations and optical inter-sat links (OISL). This New Space market generates a strong demand for Fine / Fast Steering Mirrors (FSM) for pointing functions. To address this need, the CONECS project aims at developing LEO-space-qualified piezoelectric FSM with drive electronics: As a result, P-FSM35XS-NS and P-FSM150S, with CCBu20-NS compact control box have been designed to ensure resistance to launching and in-orbit pointing with angular strokes up to 10mrad, full stroke bandwidth up to 100Hz and a lifetime of up to five years.

Real-Time Image Super Resolution System Based on Micro-scanning Technology

September 5, 2023

Different from the recent popular super resolution system based on AI technology which needs normally massive training datasets, the micro-scanning super resolution system by integrating the high-precision mechanism and the image processing system can overpass the training datasets limit to enhance the image resolution and quality considerably in real time. Such a real-time image super resolution system named Quick Demo Station (QDS) system is presented. This system is jointly developed by Shanghai IAE, China, in cooperation with Cedrat technologies, France. The system is made of two modules, one imaging module (MicroScan_ VIS_Module ), the other image processing module (a portable image processing workstation). The image processing module performs imaging module's control, as well as image acquisition, image registration, image superresolution reconstruction, image contrast enhancement. Here the algorithm used to restore the low-resolution (LR) images is the iterative reconstruction method, which could achieve high quality super-resolution (SR) results. The output is a video stream whose frame rate is higher than 25 frames per second. The system is being tested in different applications and show the excellent super-resolution results, including low light level conditions and outdoor variable lighting scenarios. Furthermore, the algorithm in image processing module can be used not only on the workstations, but also in embedded processing system.

Manufacture and properties of first industrial actuators APA® using carbon epoxy SHELLS

February 12, 2012

Future aeronautics will more often use electrical actuators in order to replace hydraulic actuators. Existing Amplified Piezo Actuators APA® with steel shell, delivering among the highest mass energy densities, are good candidates. Lighter carbon shells are developed to further increase their efficiency. For helicopters rotor blade application this evolution is almost unavoidable but is also very interesting for other domains. High modulus and high tensile strength carbon fibres shells have been produced by conventional filament winding, tested and compared.

Mechanical structure with high force amplification ratio for low frequency piezoelectric harvester application

June 19, 2023

A mechanical structure based on serial stacking of level arm has been designed in order to amplify the ingoing force of the the harvester system. The outgoing force is applied upon the smart material. The deformation of the mechanical structure is based on flexural pivots using four truncated circular collars. The last amplification is based on the APA® (Amplified Piezoelectric Actuator) shell and already patented solution by Cedrat Technologies. The force amplification structure has been designed upon the request of a small volume allocated (0.3 cm3) and low frequency resonance (20 Hz) harvester

Mechanically amplified piezo tunable3D microwave superconducting

January 6, 2016

In the context of hybrid quantum systems, there is a demand for superconducting tunable devices able to operate in the single-photon regime. In this work, we developed a 3D microwave reentrant cavity with such characteristics ready to provide a very fine-tuning of a high-Q resonant mode over a large dynamic range. This system has an electronic tuning mechanism based on a mechanically amplified piezoelectric actuator, which can set the cavity resonance with a large dynamic range of order 1 GHz at 10 mK. At elevated microwave power, nonlinear thermal effects were observed to destroy the superconductivity of the cavity due to the large electric fields generated in the small gap of the reentrant cavity.