Award Data

Under this STTR Imaging Systems Technology (IST) will apply novel Plasma-shell technology and expertise with gas plasma systems to shield and protect BMDS Radar. Plasma-shells are tiny hollow gas encapsulating shells. When energy is applied across the shell, the gas inside ionizes into a plasma. Theory of plasma-electromagnetic (EM) field interaction shows that, under appropriate conditions, pl ...

Mercury Cadmium Telluride (MCT) has been described as one of the most technologically significant semiconductor materials and is the most widely used material for long wave infrared (LWIR) imaging. The current challenge is to produce MCT over large focal plane array size at low cost and high reliability without compromising sensitivity or noise performance. MCT on silicon substrates is highly attr ...

An innovative, super-miniature, fast-switching array-based photonic time delay device is being developed for the active electronically scanned-array (AESA) MDA and Navy radars. The design is based on the fast electro-optic effect, the super miniature fiber-lens collimation array, and the existing WDM photonic true time delay technologies. In Phase I Agiltron has successfully demonstrated the core ...

Physical Sciences Inc. (PSI) proposes to develop, evaluate, and test new elements of a sensor fusion architecture for Command, Control, and Battle Management and Communications (C2BMC) for Ballistic Missile Defense (BMD). PSI proposes an innovative architecture designed to leverage sensor diversity and multimodal feature extraction to provide Enhanced C2BMC functionality in search, track, discrimi ...

Missile defense takes place in a dynamic, uncertain environment. Multi-raid attacks threaten to overload sensor capabilities, leaving fewer sensor resources free to observe each target complex. Moreover, the shift in emphasis toward early intercept, coupled with the growing importance of short- and medium-range threats, reduces the time available for detection, tracking, and discrimination, becaus ...

Today"s Ballistic Missile Defense networks consist of many different types of sensors and platforms, and given the expanded focus of MDA on theater and regional missile defense where multiple"raids"can be launched from different sites toward numerous targets, it is crucial that they can be dynamically tasked and deployed effectively in real-time to realize their full potential in achieving overall ...

Detecting, localizing, identifying, tracking, and intercepting multiple and dispersed missiles aimed at multiple and dispersed defended areas, presents a daunting theoretical and practical challenge. The Scientific Systems Company, Inc. team proposes a foundational, information-theoretic and controltheoretic approach. It is based on mathematically modeling a multiplatform-multisensor-multitarget s ...

High efficiency heat-sinks for thermal management of high energy solid state lasers are proposed. Advanced heat sink technology enables increased performance of directed energy solid state lasers. Efficient high performance thermal management materials representing next generation thermal expansion matched high thermal conductivity heat sinks are proposed with an additional level of hybridizatio ...

The diode pumped alkali laser (DPAL) allows for a potentially scalable approach towards a MW-class high energy laser system. By using an alkali vapor gain medium, one overcomes the intrinsic thermo-optical limitations of more conventional diode-pumped solid state laser (DPSSL) media. High spectral brightness diode pump sources are proposed as the enabling element for efficient, kW-class DPAL sys ...

Recent advances in fiber lasers have shown their potential for power scaling to Directed Energy levels. Many of the high-power, cladding-pumped, large-mode-area fiber systems demonstrated in the laboratory have employed free-space optics to couple the diode laser pump power into the pump cladding of the fiber. While the approach is useful for power scaling demonstrations, it is not practical for ...