Hand-Held Hemispherical-Dome Emissivity and Reflectance Sensor

Physical Optics Corporation (POC) proposes to develop a new hand-held Hemispherical-dome Emissivity And Reflectance (HEAR) sensor to measure both integrated and bi-directional angular reflectance of coated materials on curved and flat surfaces, using aunique combination of several commercially available and POC-developed components: a fiber-delivered portable IR source, a miniature hemispherical dome with multi-channel fiber detection outlets, a new compact Rowland spectrometer with multiple layers ofwaveguides to generate spectrally resolvable reflectance, an uncooled detector array to detect the IR spectrum for each angle, and new software to transform the signals to 3-D hemispherical plots and compute surface emissivity and reflectivity. In PhaseI, POC demonstrated the feasibility of the approach, leading to a simple proof-of-concept prototype and analysis of its performance. Phase I achievements prove that HEAR technology is viable, with strong potential for meeting the need for military andcommercial coated surface characterization. In Phase II, POC will optimize the HEAR sensor design in light of technical issues and lessons learned in Phase I, optimize distribution of the fiber detection outlets in conjunction with minimal angularscanning, develop fuzzy logic data processing, complete HEAR system hardware development and integrate the system to meet Navy application needs. The portable HEAR sensor for measuring the infrared properties will find many commercial applications,including industrial furnace maintenance and manufacturing, where it is important to monitor durability at high temperature; thermal control for the aerospace industry, supersonic and hypersonic aircraft and spacecraft development, where efficient surfaceradiation is necessary for cooling at large Mach numbers and at high altitudes; vehicle, ship, and target signature analysis for laser radar; surface quality control for finished products such as toys, foods, and other goods; coating/paint durabilityprediction for the paint industry; development of low or high emissivity paints/coatings; image recognition for robots; signature simulation of artificial targets; and evaluation of biological tissues for diagnosis under selected spectral radiation.