HIGH PERFORMANCE STARING THREAT WARNING RECEIVER WITH OPTICAL FILTERING

IRVINE SENSORS CORPORATION (ISC) PROPOSES TO DEMONSTRATE THE DATA RATE REDUCTION AND CLUTTER SUPPRESSION CAPABILITIES IN THREAT WARNING (TW) APPLICATIONS WHICH CAN BE ACHIEVED UTILIZING MASSIVELY-PARALLEL PREPROCESSING TECHNIQUES IMPLEMENTED EFFICIENTLY UTILIZING ISC'S THREE-DIMENSIONAL (3-D) PACKAGING TECHNIQUES. THE PHASE I PROGRAM WILL ADDRESS THE ISSUES CREATED BY UTILIZING STARING INFRARED MOSAIC ARRAYS FOR WIDE FIELD OF REGARD TW SENSORS, INCLUDING HIGH DATA RATES, CLUTTER REJECTION, THE EFFECTIVENESS OF OPTICAL FILTERING TECHNIQUES, AND DOWNSTREAM PROCESSING OVERLOAD. ISC'S PROPOSED ANALYSIS DURING PHASE I WILL INCLUDE A STUDY TO DETERMINE THE OPTIMAL PARTITIONING OF SIGNAL PROCESSING ELECTRONICS, ONVERSUS OFF-FOCAL PLANE. THE ANALYTICAL RESULTS WILL ALSO PROVIDE A BASELINE SEQUENCE FOR THE VARIOUS SPECTRAL, TEMPORAL, AND SPATIAL FILTERING ELEMENTS WHICH WILL BE INCLUDED IN THE DEMONSTRATION UNIT. THE PHASE II FEASIBILITY DEMONSTRATION (FD) WILL CONSIST OF AN ACOUSTO-OPTIC TUNABLE FILTER (AOTF) FOR SPECTRAL FILTERING, COUPLED WITH A 3-D SIGNAL PROCESSING MODULE PROVIDING SPATIAL FILTERING AND AN OFF-FPA DYNAMIC STARE ALGORITHM FOR TEMPORAL FILTERING. THE FD WILL BE STRUCTURED TO ALLOW ASSESSMENT OF THE RELATIVE EFFICIENCIES OF DIFFERENT SEQUENCES FOR THE SIGNAL PROCESSING FUNCTIONS.