QUASI-TRANSLATOR, FOURIER MODULATOR, FOURIER SPECTROMETER, MOTION CONTROL SYSTEM AND METHODS FOR CONTROLLING SAME, AND SIGNAL PROCESSOR CIRCUIT

1 . A motion control system for controlling the motion of a quasi-translator or actuator, the motion control system comprising at least one processor connected to the quasi-translator or actuator, the at least one processor operating to at least one of: (i) control a drive amplifier of the quasi-translator or actuator, thereby controlling a driving element and a driven element of the quasi-translator or actuator; and (ii) change a path length of a beam interacting with the driven element at a predetermined rate.

2 . The motion control system of claim 1 , wherein the predetermined rate is determined by a wavelength of a laser and a crystal, a frequency of the crystal or a frequency of an oscillator that is controlled by the crystal, the crystal operating as a reference frequency.

3 . The motion control system of claim 2 , further comprising a frequency to period converter that operates to at least one of:

(i) compare a laser fringe rate to the reference frequency;

(ii) determine the time between two successive laser crossings and compare the time to the predetermined rate obtained from the wavelength of the laser and the crystal, the frequency of the crystal or the frequency of oscillator controlled by the crystal;

(iii) monitor one or more effects of vibration and/or sound in real time;

(iv) determine an amplitude and a location of any disturbance of the one or more effects; and

(v) use a seven (7) level prioritized, preemptive interrupt system, wherein at least one level of the interrupt system includes a shadow register set such that interrupt latency is about four hundred (400) nanoseconds at the at least one level.

4 . The motion control system of claim 1 , wherein the drive amplifier at least one of:

(i) comprises an operational amplifier;

(ii) is connected to, disposed on or disposed across a drive coil of the quasi-translator or actuator, the drive coil operating to interact with the driving element of the quasi-translator or actuator such that the drive coil and the driving element create translational motion, thereby moving the driven element of the quasi-translator or actuator;

(iii) is connected to, disposed on or disposed across a predetermined fixed location of the quasi-translator or actuator, or is connected to the quasi-translator or actuator and is disposed remotely or proximately to the quasi-translator or actuator such that the drive amplifier operates to interact or communicate with the driving element and the drive coil and to control the motion of the driven element; and

(iv) is disposed on the drive coil while the at least one processor is located remotely or proximately to the quasi-translator or actuator.

5 . The motion control system of claim 1 , further comprising a control loop that operates to at least one of: (i) maintain or preserve an optical path length that is proportional to or substantially proportional to a voltage applied to the driving element; and (ii) compute and/or apply a linearly changing voltage (“Gross Position voltage”) such that an interferogram for an open loop scan is produced.

6 . The motion control system of claim 5 , further comprising a laser that produces information used to compute one or more velocity and/or position error voltages, the one or more velocity and/or position error voltages being subtracted from the Gross Position voltage.

7 . The motion control system of claim 6 , further comprising a laser signal processor that operates to obtain the information from the laser and to pass the information to the at least one processor.

8 . The motion control system of claim 7 , wherein the laser and the laser signal processor: (i) operate within the control loop or (ii) operate outside of the control loop.

9 . The motion control system of claim 8 , wherein, when the laser and the laser signal processor operate outside of the control loop, the laser signal is buffered and transmitted to the at least one processor, wherein the at least one processor further operates to: (i) obtain zero path difference information; (ii) compute and subtract the velocity and the position error voltages from the Gross Position voltage; (iii) change the path length at the rate determined by a laser and a crystal, a frequency of the crystal or a frequency of an oscillator that is controlled by the crystal;

and (iv) use the computed and/or obtained information to at least one of adjust, start and stop the driving element and the drive coil, thereby achieving the path length change and affecting the translational motion of the driven element.

10 . The motion control system of claim 9 , wherein the at least one processor includes a digitizer that operates to measure an amplitude and a pedestal of the laser signal.

11 . The motion control system of claim 10 , further comprising an enclosure or a hermetic enclosure and a TIAX or TIA processor circuit connected to one or more components of the motion control system and being located outside of the enclosure or the hermetic enclosure, wherein the digitizer further operates to remove an analog information signal between the enclosure or the hermetic enclosure and the TIAX or TIA processor circuit such that little or no sensitive analog information is passed between the enclosure or the hermetic enclosure and the outside TIAX or TIA processor circuit.

12 . The motion control system of claim 7 , wherein the at least one processor includes a laser clock edge therein, the laser clock edge operating to receive the laser information from the laser signal processor.

13 . The motion control system of claim 12 , further comprising a laser detector that operates to center a scan or to scan over a zero path difference by adjusting an offset voltage.

14 . The motion control system of claim 13 , wherein the laser detector is an infrared detector and has a response of 1/f where f is a frequency of the crystal.

15 . The motion control system of claim 13 , wherein the at least one processor further operates to: (i) compute and subtract the velocity and the position error voltages from the Gross Position voltage; (ii) change the path length at the rate determined by a laser and a crystal, a frequency of the crystal or a frequency of an oscillator that is controlled by the crystal; and (iii) use the computed, scanned and/or obtained information to at least one of adjust, start and stop the driving element and the drive coil, thereby achieving the path length change and affecting the translational motion of the driven element.

16 . The motion control system of claim 15 , wherein at least one of the laser detector, the drive amplifier and the laser signal processor are disposed on a printed circuit board located or mounted within an enclosure or a hermetic enclosure such that only one or more digital signals pass in and out of the enclosure or the hermetic enclosure, thereby reducing susceptibility of the motion control system to at least one of one or more environmental condition(s) from the outside of the enclosure or the hermetic enclosure, force(s), temperature, noise and vibration(s) and thereby permitting derivation of a reliable clock in one or more extreme or outrageous environmental conditions.

17 . The motion control system of claim 16 , wherein the enclosure or the hermetic enclosure includes a predetermined location that operates to house a desiccant therein such that the desiccant operates to remove the moisture and maintain one or more environmental conditions within the enclosure or the hermetic enclosure.

18 . The motion control system of claim 1 , wherein one or more principles of loop tuning, sample rate jitter and the bandwidth are balanced.

19 . The motion control system of claim 1 , further comprising at least one of:

(i) a VT100 display that operates to be used for software and/or hardware development, diagnostic(s), field service and production;

(ii) an oscilloscope;

(iii) a schematic;

(iv) a thump detector that operates to quantify and locate one or more bumps to the quasi-translator or actuator in real time; and

(v) a watch loop that operates to at least one of: provide a real time window into operation of the motion control system; tune one or more components of the motion control system; display average laser clock jitter or root mean square jitter; and monitor the thump detector in real time.

20 . The motion control system of claim 1 , wherein the system does not employ one or more comparators such that one or more zero velocity occurrences or one or more extra laser pulses do not affect the quasi-translator or actuator and/or the motion control system, thereby improving quality of data collection.

21 . A method for controlling a motion control system, the method comprising:

controlling a drive amplifier of a quasi-translator or actuator to control a driving element and a drive coil of the quasi-translator or actuator such that the driving element and the drive coil operate to interact, thereby creating translational motion and moving a driven element connected to the quasi-translator or actuator; and

changing an optical path length of a beam interacting with the driven element of the quasi-translator or actuator at a predetermined rate.

22 . The method of claim 21 , further comprising at least one of:

maintaining, updating or preserving the optical path length such that the optical path length is proportional to or substantially proportional to a voltage applied to the driving element; and

computing and/or applying a linearly changing voltage (“Gross Position voltage”) such that an interferogram for an open loop scan is produced when the quasi-translator or actuator interacts with an interferometer.

23 . The method of claim 21 , further comprising at least one of:

(i) obtaining a reference frequency from an interaction between a laser and a crystal, a frequency of the crystal or a frequency of an oscillator that is controlled by the crystal; and

(ii) determining the predetermined rate from a wavelength of the laser and the crystal, the frequency of the crystal, or the frequency of an oscillator that is controlled by the crystal.

24 . The method of claim 23 , further comprising at least one of:

computing and/or applying a linearly changing voltage (“Gross Position voltage”) such that an interferogram for an open loop scan is produced when the quasi-translator or actuator interacts with an interferometer;

obtaining information from the laser either using a laser signal processor or using a buffered laser signal;

using the information obtained from the laser or from the laser signal to compute a velocity error voltage and a position error voltage; and

subtracting the velocity and position error voltages from the Gross Position voltage.

25 . The method of claim 24 , further comprising:

passing the laser information from a laser signal processor to at least one other processor when the laser signal processor is used; or

measuring an amplitude and a pedestal of the buffered laser signal when the buffered laser signal is used, digitizing the information from the laser signal and passing the laser information to the at least one other processor.

26 . The method of claim 25 , wherein the at least one other processor includes a laser clock edge therein, the laser clock edge operating to receive the laser information from the laser signal processor or to receive the laser information from the buffered laser signal.

27 . The method of claim 26 , further comprising centering a scan or scanning over a zero path difference by adjusting an offset voltage with a laser detector.

28 . The method of claim 27 , further comprising:

using the computed and/or scanned information to at least one of adjust, start and stop the driving element and the drive coil such that the path length change is achieved and the translational motion of the driven element is affected.

29 . The method of claim 28 , wherein the using of the computed and/or scanned information step further comprises summing the Gross Position voltage, the offset voltage, the velocity error and the position error and using the summed result as the input of the drive amplifier such that the output of the drive amplifier causes the change and/or drives the interaction between the driving element and the drive coil, thereby achieving the desired change to the motion of the driven element.

30 . The method of claim 27 , further comprising at least one of:

obtaining a location of a predetermined zero path difference point defining a crossing of one of the laser zero crossings; and

deriving the zero path difference point defining a crossing of one of the laser zero crossings from a signal from the laser detector, wherein the laser detector is an infrared detector.

31 . The method of claim 27 , further comprising at least one of:

determining a laser fringe rate using the zero path difference and the information from the laser or the laser signal processor that is sent to the laser clock edge;

comparing the laser fringe rate to the reference frequency to obtain a value which is proportional to the velocity error;

calculating the position error by integrating the value that is proportional to velocity error;

determining the time between two successive laser crossings; and

comparing the time to the predetermined rate calculated from the wavelength of the laser and the crystal, the frequency of the crystal or the frequency of an oscillator that is controlled by the crystal.

32 . A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium containing software code operating to cause one or more processors to perform the steps, comprising:

controlling a drive amplifier of a quasi-translator or actuator to control a driving element and a drive coil of the quasi-translator or actuator such that the driving element and the drive coil operate to interact, thereby creating translational motion and moving a driven element connected to the quasi-translator or actuator; and

changing an optical path length of a beam interacting with the driven element of the quasi-translator or actuator at a predetermined rate.