Jitter Reduction in Light Weight Beam Control Devices

MZA is proposing to build on the Phase I work that leveraged both finite element modeling (FEM) and additive manufacturing (AM) to simultaneously reduce the size, weight and power (SWaP) and improve the jitter performance of optical mounts in directed energy (DE) systems. For Phase II, the design refinement strategy will be adapted to both mounts and structural assemblies in a quarter scale beam director and expanded to apply targeted damping to both mounts and the entire beam director. AM will be used to rapidly prototype and lab-test the designs to arrive at one that provides significant SWaP and jitter improvement. We will simultaneously advance our mechanical jitter modeling codes to facilitate design optimization of the targeted damping approach and enable application of the approach in future programs. The optimized designs will be flight tested on Notre Dame’s Airborne Aero-Optics Laboratory (AAOL) aircraft and the jitter improvement will be compared with baseline designs. Key results from the sub-scale testing will be applied to a full-scale system design that can be integrated with one or more of MZA’s existing beam directors. We will take this to the level of generic designs that can be directly marketed to other beam director manufacturers. Approved for Public Release | 22-MDA-11102 (22 Mar 22)