Stamford / Connecticut / United States
ABOUT OPTICAL ENERGY TECHNOLOGIES INC OET was organized in 1984, and since then has been engaged in the manufacture of a patented, non-tracking concentrating solar collector, and the installation, and service of all types of solar energy systems. In 1997, OET was reorganized to provide expanded electro-optical, electronic, mechanical, and instrument system design and development services from concept definition, system and worst case analysis, design, fabrication, and test of electro-optical instruments and/or subsystems of larger electro-optical systems. OET has a staff of interdisciplinary senior level engineers/managers, having a cumulative experience of over 150 man-years, who have worked closely together for over 7 years. OET is currently developing, on its own funds, its patented high power, 12/1 trough concentrator for GaAs solar cells, with a "Figure of Merit" of greater than 100 watts/Kg. of panel weight ( four times that of current spacecraft solar panels ) with a unique folding configuration. OET has also developed its patented 2.8/1 pyramidal concentrator solar collector flat plate solar panel for spacecraft having a "Figure of Merit" greater than 150 watts/Kg. ( Five times that of current solar panels. ) Also in the prototype stage and flight qualified, is a patented two axis, high accuracy sun sensor for use at any orbit, with an 100 diameter field of view with different models providing readout accuracies over this field of view of 0.5 to 0.05 3s even at low earth orbit, where the earth albedo normally produces inaccuracies. This sensor uses a proprietary algorithm incorporated into the spacecraft computer to provide this accuracy and allows the optical head of this sun sensor to have a weight less than 1.4 ounces ( <40 grams ). One of these sensors will fly on the CUBESAT picosatellite developed by CALPOLY University, San Luis Obispo in November 2004. Also recently developed is a single axis infrared earth sensor weighing less than 100 grams and providing 1 of accuracy at null attitude for low altitude circular orbits. Four of these earth sensors are incorporated into the micro-sats being developed by Michigan Technical University and Taylor University for flights on the Space Shuttle. OET has also conducted initial development, using a combination of in-house funds and a grant from the State of Connecticut Advanced Development Authority, of a combination energy storage flywheel/attitude control reaction wheel system using semi-passive magnetic bearings, on which a patent has been granted. These semi passive magnetic bearings reduce the electronic complexity of the required levitation control circuitry relative to existing competitive active magnetic bearings by a factor of 5/1, thus reducing recurring costs and increasing reliability commensurately. The result of this program to date is a full scale mechanical mockup using the passive magnetic bearings only, with the flywheel driven by external means. OET has also developed and delivered commercial, electro-optical spectral radiometer instruments for field use, providing discrete spectral filter responses in the 1.0 to 5.0 m infrared wavelength region. It has also developed and delivered three, state-of-the-art, spectro-radiometers covering the infrared wavelength region from 1.4 m to 14.2 m, able to generate 10 spectra per second, with a spectral resolution better than 0.1 m.
