When the field of operation of precision strike missiles is more and more complicated, autonomous seekers will soon encounter serious difficulties, especially with regard to low signature targets and complex scenarios. So the dual-mode sensors combining an imaging sensor with a semi-active laser seeker are conceived to overcome these specific problems. Here the sensors composed a dual field of view mid-infrared thermal imaging camera and a laser range finder have the common optical aperture which produced the minization of seeker construction. The common aperture optical systems for mid-infrared and laser dual-mode guildance have been developed, which could meet the passive middle infrared high-resolution imaging and the active laser high-precision indication and ranging. The optical system had good image quality, and fulfilled the performance requirement of seeker system. The design and expected performance of such a dual-mode optical system will be discussed.

Date Published: 28 February 2017
PDF: 6 pages
Proc. SPIE 10256, Second International Conference on Photonics and Optical Engineering, 102560S (28 February 2017); doi: 10.1117/12.2256433

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 10256:
Second International Conference on Photonics and Optical Engineering
Chunmin Zhang; Anand Asundi, Editor(s)