United States of America As Represented by the Secretary of the Air Force

Salvatore J Cusumano

Richard A Carreras

Janet S Fender

Morton B Jenks

Christopher R DeHainaut

Robert R Butts

Robert I Suizu

A plurality of telescopes provide output return signals which are applied both directly and in sampled form to a photo-detector cell. The detected signals from the photo-detector will represent the constant and transient errors of the telescope system. A low pass filter insures that the tracker provides only the constant or D.C. component of the error, while a high pass filter insures that the existing measuring devices for each telescope beam provide only the transient or A.C. component of the error. The A.C. and D.C. error signals are summed together with the appropriate applied gains on each channel such that the sum reconstructs the original telescope position error with good fidelity.

Synthetic aperture multi-telescope tracker apparatus

An apparatus and technique are described for phasing the outputs of a multiplier telescope array used as a laser transmitter. The technique uses samples of the transmitted beams to control optical path lengths through the separate telescopes so that the beams add coherently at the receiver. The phasing concept is applicable both to systems which provide inputs to the multiple telescopes by dividing a single laser beam and to systems in which the inputs to the telescopes and multiple, phase-locked laser beams. The approach is also compatible with single line and multi-line lasers, and it does not entail stringent alignment requirements. The concept uses a procedure to find the zero optical path difference condition and to effect fine control of the optical path lengths through the different telescopes. Algorithms are described for estimating the phase mismatch from focal plane measurements.

Optically phased laser transmitter

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Champaign, IL, United States of America

Salvatore J Cusumano