INNOVATIVE APPLICATIONS OF ACOUSTIC CHARGE TRANSPORT SIGNAL MICROPROCESSOR TECHNOLOGY

THE DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE HAS A REQUIREMENT FOR NON-CONTACT PROXIMITY FUZING WHICH IS IMMUNE TO COUNTERMEASURES AND ELECTROMAGNETIC INTERFERENCE (EMI/EMP). DIGITAL SIGNAL CORPORATION (DCS) HAS DEVELOPED AND DEMONSTRATED SUCH A FUZE WITH A UNIQUE DESIGN BASED ON A COHERENT SEMICONDUCTOR LASER. THE DEVICE USES OPTICS AND LASERDOPPLER INFORMATION TO PRECISELY DETERMINE THE RELATIVE VELOCITY AND DISTANCE BETWEEN THE FUZE AND A TARGET. AN ACOUSTIC CHARGE TRANSPORT (ACT) MICROPROCESSOR IS PROPOSED TO GREATLY ENHANCE THE VELOCITY RESOLUTION AND IMPROVE THE SIGNAL-TO-NOISE RATIO OF THE CURRENT PROTOTYPE FUZE. THE RESULTING LASER/ACT FUZE PACKAGE WILL BE EXTREMELY SMALL, LIGHTWEIGHT, AND INEXPENSIVE. THE PHASE I PROJECT WILL ADDRESS THE FEASIBILITY OF USING AN ACT DEVICE TO ENHANCE THE FUZE RECEIVER PERFORMANCE BY FILTERING THE DOPPLER VELOCITY INFORMATION. AN ANALYSIS WILL QUANTIFY THE EXPECTED PERFORMANCE INCREASES. SEVERAL DIFFERENT STRATEGIESFOR UTILIZING THE EXTERNAL PROGRAMMABILITY WILL BE CONSIDERED IN THE ANALYSIS. FOR EXAMPLE, PROGRAMMABILITY MAKES IT POSSIBLE TO HAVE SINGLE FUZE DESIGN FOR A WIDE VARIETY OF PLATFORMS AND MISSIONS. THE RESULTS OF THE ANALYSIS WILL BE USED TO GENERATE A PRELIMINARY DESIGN OF APRACTICAL FUZING SYSTEM. A PROTOTYPE RECEIVER WILL BE CONSTRUCTED WITH AN ACT MICROPROCESSOR DEVICE SUPPLIED BY ELECTRONIC DECISIONS INCORPORATED (EDI). THE ACT RECEIVER, INTERFACED WITH AN EXISTING OPTICS/LASER SUBSYSTEM, WILL THEN BE MEASURED TO VALIDATE THE ANALYSIS. ANTICIPATED BENEFITS/POTENTIAL COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS - THE LASER/ACT FUZE DESIGN WILL BE SUITABLE FOR WIDESPREAD APPLICATION TO GRAVITY BOMBS,ANTI-ARMOR AND ANTI-AIR MISSILES. THE PRECISION OF THE POSITION AND VELOCITY SENSING WILL ENABLE THE CREATION OF A NEW CLASS OF MUNITIONS WHICH ADAPTIVELY TAILOR THEIR BLAST ENERGY. FOR EXAMPLE, THIS NEW CLASS OF MUNITIONS WILL BE CAPABLE OF EFFICIENTLY