SURMET CORP — Department of Defense SBIR Phase II: Multimode seekers are receiving significant attention as a way to provide more capability

Description

Multimode seekers are receiving significant attention as a way to provide more capability in the same package. In some cases, both optical and millimeter wave seekers are being combined in a way that requires a common aperture. The requirements for such a system place a tremendous burden on the design and fabrication of the dome. Optical fabrication costs for multi-mode seeker domes can be very high. Consequently, it is important to know that a starting dome blank is of sufficient quality to yield a compliant dome, prior to beginning fabrication. This can be achieved by inspection polishing and evaluating each dome blank prior to final fabrication. While this method works, it prohibitively expensive to do on every dome blank. Consequently, this step is either omitted or performed only on a representative blank from each"batch". An alternative approach is to develop a method of performing a thorough evaluation of a dome blank with a ground surfaces. In the phase I effort Surmet has demonstrated a process for doing this on 4"diameter subscale domes. Under the Phase II effort the process will be further optimized, automated, and scaled to allow inspection of 7 inch diameter nearly hemispherical domes.