Airborne Optical Receiver for a Submarine Laser Communication System

Optical Design and Integration

• Four aperture, very fast (F# <1) optics

• Very large (> 20° full angle) field of view

• Assembly and alignment procedures were developed in parallel with system design

Non-Standard Solutions

• Anamorphic, long-range beam shapers

• Custom opto-mechanical assemblies
• Manufacturing-oriented design

Cassegrain Telescope based alternative

• Extremely high (> 4° full angle) field of view

• Subpixel resolution across full field
• Small (<12%) obscuration
• High speed

Performance Modeling

• Developed consistent MATLAB® and LabVIEW ® models of system performance helped the customer to reliably build and analyse best performance envelope

• Models accounted for CONOPS restrictions, atmospheric and ocean conditions
• Integrated system approach allowed a unified look at optical, environmental and CONOPS performace as a funciton of critical design parameters