Physical Optics Corporation — Department of Defense SBIR Phase II: MDA15-014

Description

Addressing the MDAs need for a thermally efficient emitter technology for advanced scene/simulation capability in hardware-in-the-loop (HWIL) testing, Physical Optics Corporation (POC) proposes to advance, in Phase II, the development of a new Thermally Efficient Infrared Emitter (THEIRE) based on spatially tiled high-resolution spatial light modulators (SLMs) and optically induced near-blackbody radiation from vertically aligned carbon nanotube (VACNT) arrays, which enables flickerless, large (4kx4k) format presentation of dynamic wide (up to 2000K) temperature scenery at high (greater than or equal to 400 Hz) frame rates for high-fidelity infrared projection in ground test environments. The Phase I development had proven the feasibility of the THEIRE concept and laid a strong foundation for future development. In Phase II, POC plans to refine the THEIRE system design and optimize the system performance to develop a full-scale (a resolution scaled-up version with improvements from Phase I) THEIRE prototype meeting MDA requirements. The scaling-up includes a large-format emitter array (4kx4k) and image generation in the visible and infrared spectral bands (including MWIR/LWIR scene with temperatures of 2000K) to perform high fidelity (high resolution, adequate effective temperature, and fast dynamics) HWIL tests. The Phase II prototype will be tested and demonstrated to MDA. Approved for Public Release | 16-MDA-8951 (15 December 16)