COMPACT HIGH EFFICIENCY MULTIAPERTURE BROAD SPECTRUM SENSOR

HYPERSONIC INTERCEPTORS REQUIRE COMPACT, HIGH EFFICIENCY MULTIAPERTURE BROADBAND SENSORS TO DETECT/IDENTIFY STEALTH VEHICLES. E-TEK PROPOSES A MULTI-BEAM PHASED-ARRAY SYSTEM COVERING RF FREQUENCIES OF 100 MHZ TO 60 GHZ AND INFRA-RED OPTICAL WAVELENGTHS. THE 100 MHZ TO 60 GHZ SUBSYSTEM IS AN OPTICALLY CONTROLLED MULTIBEAM PHASED-ARRAY USING PROGRAMMABLE MASKING TECHNIQUE. THIS TECHNIQUE CAN REDUCE SIZE/WEIGHT/COST/POWER CONSIDERABLY, BECAUSE IT DOES NOT REQUIRE PHASE SHIFTERS AND/OR COMPLEX WEIGHTS. THE OPTICAL MULTI-BEAM PHASE-ARRAY SUBSYSTEM CONSISTS OF LASER DIODES AND INTEGRATED OPTIC PHASE SHIFTERS. THE INTEGRATED PHASE SHIFTERS ARE ELECTRONICALLY CONTROLLABLLE, AND ARE MASS PRODUCIBLE. E-TEK WILL DESIGN AND OPTIMIZE THE PHASE-ARRAY SYSTEM IN PHASE I R&D, AND IT WILL LEAD TO PHASE II HARDWARE FABRICATIONS/EVALUATION.