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Hybrid Lidar-radar Receiver for Underwater Imaging Applications
Navy SBIR 2008.1 - Topic N08-032 NAVAIR - Mrs. Janet McGovern - [email protected] Opens: December 10, 2007 - Closes: January 9, 2008 N08-032 TITLE: Hybrid Lidar-radar Receiver for Underwater Imaging Applications TECHNOLOGY AREAS: Sensors ACQUISITION PROGRAM: PMA-264 Air Anti-Submarine Warfare Systems, ACAT IV; PMA-290 The technology within this topic is restricted under the International Traffic in Arms Regulation (ITAR), which controls the export and import of defense-related material and services. Offerors must disclose any proposed use of foreign nationals, their country of origin, and what tasks each would accomplish in the statement of work in accordance with section 3.5.b.(7) of the solicitation. OBJECTIVE: Develop a hybrid lidar-radar receiver to recover and process the radar subcarrier from a modulated pulsed optical signal. DESCRIPTION: A gated, demodulating receiver is needed that can efficiently process a modulated return signal after it propagates through a turbid water environment. Although off-the-shelf analogue demodulator components are currently available to coherently process a 0.5-1GHz radar signal, they are lossy (>10dB), sensitive to ambient temperature variations, and have low (<30dB) dynamic range. Optical detectors are also available that have good sensitivity in the blue-green wavelength region (>50mA/W) and >8mm diameter, but they are limited in bandwidth (<0.5GHz) and cannot be gated on/off quickly. Therefore, innovative solutions are sought that maintain the advantages of existing hardware while also improving upon their deficiencies. The receiver must be gatable to recover the 5 � 30 ns optical pulses and include some form of demodulation scheme to process the modulation within the pulse. This receiver should have good optical sensitivity in the blue-green wavelength region while inducing minimal loss to the recovered 0.5-1GHz radar signal. Thus, high quantum efficiency, large active area (8mm diameter or more) and high dynamic range (>60dB) components are essential, as are high bandwidth, low-loss, high resolution, and coherent radar processing techniques. The receiver should also be compact and integrate well with the modulated optical source. Of particular interest are innovative solutions involving optical and/or digital processing of the modulated optical signal that improved performance over existing analogue approaches. PHASE I: Determine technical feasibility of developing an efficient hybrid lidar-radar receiver that meet the required specifications and then perform preliminary bench-top tests to explore potential designs. PHASE II: Based upon the design from Phase I, develop and demonstrate a working bench-top receiver, and then develop and test a fully functioning prototype to ensure stability. PHASE III: Ruggedize the prototype and package it for use in the field. Transition technology to Navy systems for mine detection and Anti-Submarine Warfare (ASW). PRIVATE SECTOR COMMERCIAL POTENTIAL/DUAL-USE APPLICATIONS: Commercial applications that would benefit from a hybrid lidar-radar receiver include biomedical optical imaging and imaging through clouds, smoke and flame. First responders would also benefit from this technology as it would give them the ability to "see" through smoke and flames. REFERENCES: 2. L. Mullen, V. M. Contarino, and P. R. Herczfeld, Modulated Lidar System (U. S. Patent No. 5,822,047, 13 October, 1998.) KEYWORDS: Lidar; Radar; Underwater; Imaging; Range-gated; High-speed Eelctronics TPOC: (301)342-2021
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