Summary

Description

In this phase II SBIR we will design, build, test, and deliver new scanning based micro-ladar sensors with unprecedented small size, weight, and power (SWaP), thereby enabling scanning LADAR deployment on previously inaccessible platforms such as satellites. The system will range out to > 1 km, have high frame rates, high resolution (up to 500 x 500), high range accuracy (<5 cm), weigh less than a kg, be constructed from space deployable technologies with no-moving parts. The enabling technology for this Micro-LADAR system is a combination of two new electro-optic laser scanning technologies: high speed refractive continuous scanners with a 60°x15° field of view (FOV) and diffractive-waveplate discrete or step-wise scanners to boost the total FOV (ultimately up to unthinkable angles such as 120°x120°). The results will be a very low-power, long-life (no moving parts), radiation hard, micro-LADAR.