Aperture Synthesis for Partially Coherent and Passive Illumination

ABSTRACT:Trex proposes in Phase 2 to provide a brassboard demonstration of a multi-aperture homodyne beam encoding system capable of imaging with either passive or active illumination. At the end of the Phase 2 program Trex will have demonstrated that it is possible to synthetically combine multiple sub-apertures with both active and passive imaging techniques, comparing benchtop and field demonstrations with simulations. This Phase 2 will result in a designed and fabricated beam encoder that will be able to be mounted to a multi-receiver aperture allowing digital compensation of the phase jitter on each individual aperture from a single frame of data. The proposed technology has the potential to provide a solution to identification (ID) and Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (ISR) missions at long standoff ranges.BENEFIT:The proposed development enables a new imaging capability, allowing wide-equivalent-aperture conformal optics to replace conventional imaging systems with the following advantages over the current state-of-the-art:Equivalent resolution of a 78cm and 60 cm clear apertures in a conformal configuration for active and passive imaging techniques, respectively, by way of aperture synthesis resolution gain and fringe imaging telescopy (FIT);Imaging through atmospheric turbulence by correcting for atmospheric blurring at long ranges;Active and passive techniques achieve day/night imaging capabilities;Conformal design allows for placement on UAVs or similar aircraft that have limited size, weight, and power (SWaP) capabilities.