SA PHOTONICS, LLC — Department of Defense SBIR Phase I: AF161-036

Description

ABSTRACT: Imaging systems based on laser illumination provide the opportunity for high resolution imaging and tracking of moving targets. However, as the laser propagates to and from the target, atmospheric turbulence and deconstructive coherent interference of the lasers highly coherent light result in undesirable image artifacts that disrupt image processing algorithms. As slant angle decreases (especially near the ground), distance to target increases, or aperture size decreases (as is the case for smaller drone based systems), the image plane artifacts become worse. SA Photonics proposes the development of the FLASH-Lite laser illuminator and the FLASH-Lite system to solve the issue of speckle and scintillation in laser illuminated imaging.; BENEFIT: SA Photonics' FLASH-Lite illuminator contains proprietary technology to mitigate speckle and scintillation in laser illumination imaging applications. SA Photonics' technologies can enable enhanced tracking and resolving capability, while also enabling system architectures using smaller Rx and Tx apertures allowing use on smaller UAVs.