Helmet Mounted Image Source/Display for Tactical Air Combat Operations

Current helmet mounted display (HMD) image sources are CRT-based and suffer from multiple issues, including weight, safety and cost resulting from drive electronics and high voltage disconnect, and packaging. Currently available emissive and transmissive miniature flat panel displays do not provide a satisfactory alternative to the CRT image source; they suffer from one or more low brightness and low resolution. Current reflective LCOS display technology is unsatisfactory for HMD applications because complex and bulky illumination optics weight, packaging, and performance problems. We propose to solve these problems and make reflective LCOS displays attractive for HMD applications by developing novel illumination techniques. The techniques will lead to a high brightness, compact, lightweight image source. We will work with a leading avionics supplier to integrate the novel image source into a HMD and helmet, thus demonstrating the ability of the image source to provide a HMD with characteristics far superior to existing systems.