Short-range Wide-field-of-regard Extremely-agile Electronically-steered Photonic Emitter and Receiver (SWEEPER)
Abstract
(U)The objective of the Short-range Wide-field-of-regard Extremely-agile Electronically-steered Photonic Emitter and Receiver (SWEEPER) program is to develop chip-scale dense waveguide modular technology to achieve true embedded phase array control for beams equivalent to 10W average power, less than 0.1 degree instantaneous field of view (IFOV), greater than 45 degree total field of view (TFOV), and frame rates of greater than 100 Hertz (Hz) in packages that are “chip-scale.” Such performance will represent a three order of magnitude increase in speed, while also achieving a greater than two orders of magnitude reduction in size. Additionally, the integrated phase control will provide the unprecedented ability to rapidly change the number of simultaneous beams, beam profile, and power-per-beam, thus opening a whole new direction in operational capability. Key technical challenges include the ability to achieve the needed facet density (facet pitch should be on the order of a wavelength or two), control the relative phase across all facets equivalent to 9-bits, and efficiently couple and distribute coherent light to facets from a master laser oscillator with an integrated waveguide structure. Related projects and studies have pointed to the significant system-level pay-offs of the new proposed technology.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Accomplishment
- Publication Date
- Oct 01, 2011
- Source ID
- 35b16a3edb425cbb386cf9ac4de4fecf
Related Documents
- Root: ELECTRONICS TECHNOLOGY