INFRARED STANDOFF FALSE TARGET GENERATOR FOR ENHANCEMENT OF AAW AND EW

WE PROPOSE TO DEVELOP AN AIRCRAFT-DEPLOYED INFRARED (IR) SCENE GENERATOR OPERATING IN THE MID-WAVELENGTH IR (MWIR, 2-5 MICRONS) SPECTRAL BAND FOR PROJECTING FALSE-TARGET IMAGES AT STANDOFF RANGES OF 1 KM OR LONGER, TO DEFLECT THE PATH OF INCOMING IR-GUIDED SURFACE-TO-AIR OR AIR-TO-AIR MISSILES. THIS IR COUNTERMEASURE (IRCM) SYSTEM CAN PROJECT FALSE TARGET IMAGES AT A WIDE RANGE OF ANGULAR POSITIONS WITH RESPECT TO THE AIRCRAFT. THE PATH OF THE INCOMING ENEMY MISSILE IS THEREBY DEFLECTED, FOLLOWING A FALSE PRE-PROGRAMMED MWIR IMAGE OF THE AIRCRAFT AT SOME SAFE STANDOFF DISTANCE FROM THE REAL AIRCRAFT. THE GENERATOR WILL USE AN ARRAY OF MICRO RESISTORS, (CALLED MOS-RESISTORS), INTEGRATED WITH ON-CHIP CONTROL ELECTRONICS FABRICATED BY A CONVENTIONAL II PROCESS. THIS ARRAY WILL ACCEPT MWIR VIDEO IMAGERY AND THEN WILL CONVERT IT INTO AN EQUIVALENT MWIR BACKGROUND SCENE TO BE COMBINED WITH A PRE-PROGRAMMED TARGET MODEL. IN PHASE I, WE WILL PERFORM THE FOLLOWING KEY TASKS: (1) DESIGN THE MASK LAYOUT FOR FABRICATING A 256X256 MOS-RESISTOR ARRAY, (2) DESIGN THE APPROPRIATE ON-CHIP CIRCUITS FOR CONTROLLING THE MWIR EMISSION, (3) DESIGN THE SCANNER-BASED PROJECTION OPTICS FOR COMBINING THE BACKGROUND AND TARGET IR AND (4) DESIGN A CONTROL PROCESSOR TO OPERATE THE ARRAY. PHASE II WILL BE DEVOTED TO FABRICATING THE 256X256 ARRAY AND INTEGRATING IT TO THE CONTROL PROCESSOR AND OPTICS FOR DEMONSTRATING A COMPLETE FALSE-TARGET GENERATOR SYSTEM FOR COUNTERMEASURE APPLICATIONS.