US 2026/0218606 A1Published application

Closed loop boresight adjustment (clba) retro-reflector system and method of operating retro-reflector system

AssigneeNorthrop Grumman Systems Corporation

InventorsGeorge W. GIGIOLI, Fred F. FROEHLICH

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Abstract

The closed loop boresight adjustment (CLBA) retro-reflector system permits the detector element (or pixel) on a focal plane array (FPA) that is aligned with the receiver fiber to be determined in real time, during transmitting and receiving of rays, by sensing the amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) emitted by the receiver fiber and reflected by the modified retro-reflector device, without superimposition of the ASE signal and the signal from a target or remote terminal on the FPA. The modified retro-reflector device produces multiple images of the receive fiber that are separated from the image of the target or remote terminal on the FPA, so that the centroids of these images can be determined independently, while still allowing the alignment to be maintained in real time.

Claims16

Dependent claims

A closed loop boresight adjustment (CLBA) retro-reflector system, comprising:

a beam splitter that receives an incoming beam from a target or a remote terminal, wherein the beam splitter is configured to split the incoming beam into a first split incoming beam and a second split incoming beam;
a receiver fiber that receives the first split incoming beam, wherein the receiver fiber is configured to generate an amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) beam propagating toward the beam splitter;
a corner reflector comprising a first facet, a second facet, and a third facet that are configured to reflect rays, wherein the first, second, and third facets are not mutually perpendicular to reflect an incident ray into multiple reflected rays, wherein the corner reflector is arranged to receive the ASE beam from the beam spitter and to reflect the received ASE beam toward the beam splitter;
and
a pointing/acquisition/track (PAT) camera comprising a focal plane array (FPA), wherein the PAT camera is arranged to receive the second split incoming beam on the FPA and to receive on the FPA a first reflected split ASE beam that is reflected from the corner reflector and split by the beam splitter.

2 more elements

A method to align an incoming beam with a boresight pixel on a focal plane array (FPA) of a pointing/acquisition/track (PAT) camera, comprising:

receiving, via a beam splitter, the incoming beam from a target or a remote terminal;
splitting, via the beam splitter, the received incoming beam into a first split incoming beam and a second split incoming beam;
receiving, via a receiver fiber, the first split incoming beam, wherein the receiver fiber is configured to generate an amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) beam propagating toward the beam splitter;
receiving, via a corner reflector, the ASE beam from the beam spitter, wherein the corner reflector comprises a first facet, a second facet, and a third facet that are configured to reflect rays, wherein the first, second, and third facets are not mutually perpendicular to reflect an incident ray into multiple reflected rays;
reflecting, via the corner reflector, the received ASE beam toward the beam splitter;
receiving, via the FPA, the second split incoming beam and a first reflected split ASE beam that is reflected from the corner reflector and split by the beam splitter;
and
performing alignment processes to align the incoming beam with the boresight pixel on the FPA.

5 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.