According to reports, researchers from the California-based company are developing chip-level, lightweight, economical LiDAR (LiDAR) sensors for military 3D laser pointer mapping, vegetation penetration photoelectric sensing, navigation and long-range communications.
Officials of the US Air Force Research Laboratory at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio recently announced a $8.2 million contract with the company to develop chip-level optical phased array and lidar systems. The system uses the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) “Modular Optical Aperture Building Block” (MOABB) technology.
The project was launched at the end of 2015, using free space optical technology to develop related technologies that support economical chip-level lidar sensors. This technology has ultra-low size, weight and cost, and the beam scanning speed is faster than current typical products.
Profound professional accumulation in multiple technical fields, including coherent and incoherent computing imaging; high-performance optical systems; phased array lidar; millimeter wave radar and microwave systems; advanced atmospheric simulation and emission reduction technology; and graphics accelerated real-time processing technology.
The project aims to develop and verify enabling technologies for integrated photonic green laser pointer devices to generate, amplify, transmit and receive free-space optical radiation in a wider range. Companies participating in the sensor project include Lockheed Martin in Louisville, Colorado; TREX Enterprises, an optical specialist in San Diego; Analog Photonics, a photonic circuit manufacturer in Massachusetts; and Teledyne Scientific, an imaging system manufacturer in California. Imaging.