Wide-angle conformal infrared transceiver concept

Accessing a large field-of-regard (FOR) from an aircraft-mounted infrared system imposes significant structural and aerodynamic penalties. A novel conformal infrared (IR) transceiver concept is presented which is currently under development. A trial design of this concept can access a 160 deg FOR without a gimbal mirror or 'fish eye' lens. A fiber optic bundle is used to allow a wide range of beamsteering technologies with small steering angles (i.e., +/- 5 degree(s)) to access the large FOR (+/- 80 deg) through a single, conformal aperture. The output lens size is less than a factor of three times larger than the input/output IR beam, yet provides near diffraction limited polychromatic collimation over the full FOR. The concept is applicable over a wide spectral band (ultraviolet to far IR), however, it is being developed for the mid-IR (2 - 6 micron) band. The challenging technical aspects of the fiber optics in this spectral band are discussed.© (1993) COPYRIGHT SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.