High Speed Two-Axis Acousto-Optic Deflector

A Scene Generation Test Capability (SGTC) has been developed at the Air Force Arnold Engineering Development Center (AEDC) for testing IR Focal Plane Arrays (FPA) using the technique of Direct Write Scene Generation (DWSG). The DWSG concept is based on the use of two-axis acousto-optic deflectors (AODs) to scan a laser beam directly onto the FPAs. The capability of the current SGTC is limited by the speed of the ODs that use long access time to realize the specified time-bandwidth (TB) product. The objective of this program is to develop a high-speed IR two-axis AOD achieving an access time of 5 microseconds while maintaining the TB product of 256 X 256 spots. Novel AOD designs based on birefringent diffraction and phased array transducers will be developed to achieve the design goals. The Phase I effort includes the development of the high-speed two-axis AOD for the selected wavelength of 1.06, 5.4 and 10.6 microns and the fabrication and testing of a single AOD for feasibility demonstration at 5.4 microns.