This PDF file contains the front matter associated with SPIE Proceedings Volume 6544, including the Title Page, Copyright information, Table of Contents, Introduction (if any), and the Conference Committee listing.

A persistent question in the infrared scene projection community has been the spectral characteristics of resistive array emission. This paper describes the results of a comprehensive study performed on two resistive array technologies; the Nuclear Optical Dynamic Display System (NODDS) and the Santa Barbara Infrared (SBIR) Large Format Resistive Array (LFRA) product lines. A Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) spectral radiometer is used to measure the spectral radiant emission of both resistive array technologies at multiple drive levels and substrate temperatures. Application of the results to scene projection and cross spectral non-uniformity correction is discussed.

Research leading towards the continued improvement in resistor array infrared projector nonuniformity correction (NUC) is reported, particularly at low drive levels relevant to thermal imager and FLIR test and evaluation applications. Moire fringes have been successfully compensated, as has the checkerboard effect seen in earlier flood NUC measurements. With these improvements, the residual nonuniformity associated with the random spatial noise has been reduced successfully to the 0.1-0.2% rms level, equivalent to 20-60 mK noise equivalent temperature differences. The random noise is accompanied, however, by a low spatial frequency fixed pattern, currently unexplained but possibly attributable to busbar robbing in the electronic backplane.

SBIR has passed the midpoint of delivering ten 1024x1024 IR Scene Projector Systems (IRSPs) to the Government. Six systems have been installed at Redstone Technical Test Center (RTTC), Patuxent River, and Edwards Air Force Base. Four more systems are in production and will be shipped by the end of this year. The commercial name of the LFRA IRSP is Mirage XL. This ground breaking projector technology is being leveraged on the Wide Format Resistive Array (WFRA) program and on the Mirage II product. The WFRA IRSP, also known as Mirage HD, features an even larger 1536x768 emitter array and will be in system integration by the end of the year. Mirage II, which also leverages LFRA, is being readied as the next generation 512x512 projector system. Additional signal processing capabilities have been installed in the LFRA systems. Each system now has full Translation/Rotation Processing (TRP) capability. Systems also have image convolution and 400Hz 1024x512 windowing capabilities.

SBIR has completed the development of the first lot of OASIS emitter arrays and custom packaging for cryogenic IR scene projection applications. OASIS performance requirements include a maximum MWIR apparent temperature of greater than 600 K, with 10-90% radiance rise time of less than 6.5 ms. Four (4) arrays have been packaged, integrated, tested and delivered. This paper will report on the first measurements taken of the OASIS resistive emitter arrays at both ambient and cryogenic temperatures. This paper will also provide a discussion of the OASIS cryogenic projector/electronics module (Cryo-PEM) design. We will also describe the novel thermal design employed within the array package and Cryo-PEM assemblies, which allows OASIS to produce radiometrically accurate imagery with reduced thermal lag/gradient artifacts compared to legacy Honeywell cryogenic IRSP assemblies. As OASIS supports both analog and digital input, we will discuss the differences between the two modes in terms of system integration, support electronics and overall array performance.

The Air Force Electronic Warfare Evaluation Simulator (AFEWES) Infrared Countermeasures (IRCM) test facility currently has the ability to simulate a complete IRCM test environment, including IR missiles in flight, aircraft in flight, and various IR countermeasures including maneuvers, point-source flares and lamp- and LASER-based jammer systems. The simulations of IR missiles in flight include missile seeker hardware mounted on a six degree-of-freedom flight simulation table. This paper will focus on recent developments and upgrades to the AFEWES IR capability. In particular, current developments in IR scene generation/projection and efforts to optically combining the IR image produced by a resistive array with existing foreground lamp sources.

Currently, no infrared scene projector technology has the ability to completely simulate the real-world, high dynamic range temperatures encountered by modern infrared imagers. This paper presents the merging of two infrared scene technologies in an effort to develop the first truly high dynamic range infrared scene projector. The observed dynamic range capability simulates 250 Kelvin apparent background temperature to 1273 Kelvin maximum apparent temperature. The research combines the technologies of an emissive resistor array device and an optically scanned quantum well diode laser array projector. The high apparent temperature simulations are the direct result of luminescent infrared radiation emitted by the diode lasers. The simulation of low background apparent temperatures was obtained by enclosing the entire projector system in an environmental chamber operating at -40 °Celsius. The apparent temperature of the hybrid infrared scene projector was analytically calculated and compared to the measured results. Sample imagery from the high dynamic range infrared scene projector is furnished in the conclusion along with the final applicability of the hybrid approach.

Hardware-in-the-Loop (HWIL) test facilities offer the highest degree of system functional verification and performance evaluation outside of the actual operational environment. The design and analysis of HWIL simulators involves the coordinated efforts of numerous engineering fields, whose professionals possess the technical expertise, analytical skills, and insight regarding cross-discipline collaborative relationships which foster successful simulation development. As system complexity continues to increase, and as programmatic requirements allow for shorter simulation development schedules, the existing knowledge base associated with legacy HWIL simulation development will play a key role in the preparation, readiness, and efficiency of future HWIL engineering professionals. As a result, it is crucial that basic HWIL methods and concepts be specified in a formal, academic sense, and that realistic test facilities are made available to allow potential HWIL engineering students the opportunity to become acclimated to basic HWIL components and design considerations. To address this need, the United States Army Space and Missile Defense Command (SMDC), in coordination with the Auburn University Department of Aerospace Engineering, has funded an initiative to perform initial development of a graduate-level HWIL simulation option, including the provision of a functioning HWIL simulation facility located at the university. This facility, modeled after a conceptual ballistic missile interceptor, will possess the major elements of a HWIL simulation including a Six-Degree-of-Freedom (6-DOF) simulation of the missile dynamics, an electro-optical (EO) sensor implementation, a flight motion simulator (FMS), a scene generation system, and an in-band image projection system. Architectural implementations and distributed simulation elements will be modeled after existing U.S. Army missile simulation concepts. In concert with this activity, an academic emphasis on HWIL simulation and student participation across all engineering disciplines will be developed at Auburn University, with HWIL facility development and subject matter expert (SME) interaction provided by the U.S. Army Aviation and Missile Research, Development, and Engineering Center (AMRDEC). This paper describes the incremental approach being used in the development of the HWIL facility, and the academic objectives associated with student-centered simulation development and analysis.

Because they are capable of subjecting massive payloads to the high accelerations that typical HWIL simulation scenarios require, it is commonly accepted in the industry that hydraulically-driven flight motion simulators (FMS) offer advantages over other technologies. However, their small-signal performance does not traditionally match that of their electromechanical counterparts. This paper presents design improvements in the direct-drive hydraulic servo that improve accuracy and extend bandwidth, thereby closing the performance gap with electromechanical servos. The paper reports system performance improvements predicted by comprehensive mathematical simulation. These new design concepts are being applied to a 3-axis motion simulator test bed model, whose testing will be reported in a follow-up report.

VIRSuite, the GPU-based suite of software tools developed at DSTO for real-time infrared scene generation, is described. The tools include the painting of scene objects with radiometrically-associated colours, translucent object generation, polar plot validation and versatile scene generation. Special features include radiometric scaling within the GPU and the presence of zoom anti-aliasing at the core of VIRSuite. Extension of the zoom anti-aliasing construct to cover target embedding and the treatment of translucent objects is described.

The Army's Advanced Multispectral Simulation Test Acceptance Resource (AMSTAR) is a suite of missile Hardware-In-the-Loop (HWIL) simulation / test capabilities designed to support testing from concept through production. This paper presents the design tradeoffs that were conducted in the development of the AMSTAR sensor stimulators and the flight motion simulators. The AMSTAR facility design includes systems to stimulate each of the Millimeter Wave (MMW), Infrared (IR), and Semi-Active Laser (SAL) sensors. The flight motion simulator (FMS) performance was key to the success of the simulation but required many concessions to accommodate the design considerations for the tri-mode stimulation systems.

AMRDEC has successfully tested hardware and software for Real-Time Scene Generation for IR and SAL Sensors on COTS PC based hardware and video cards. AMRDEC personnel worked with nVidia and Concurrent Computer Corporation to develop a Scene Generation system capable of frame rates of at least 120Hz while frame locked to an external source (such as a missile seeker) with no dropped frames. Latency measurements and image validation were performed using COTS and in-house developed hardware and software. Software for the Scene Generation system was developed using OpenSceneGraph.

The results of testing two technologies based on gas microplasmas for the generation of UV-visible light is detailed. A microcavity device from the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana have been delivered with an Ar/D₂ gas mixture. Emission from the Ar/Ne as well as an Ar/D₂ eximer in the 250-400nm range, as well as argon lines in the visible and near infrared, are measured. Development of addressing arrays is discussed as is the potential of emission in other wavebands with other gas species. A 100x40 array of plasmaspheres combined with electronics capable of projecting images at 1000 Hz with 10 bits of grayscale resolution has been built and tested. This system, built by Imaging Systems Technology (IST), is capable of accepting DVI output from a HWIL system and projecting UV from a gas captured in the spheres. This array uses an argon neon gas mixture to produce UV, visible and near infrared light. Performance data discussed for both arrays include: maximum and minimum brightness, uniformity, spectral content, speed, linearity, crosstalk, resolution, and frame rate. Extensions of these technologies to larger arrays with wider spectral bandwidth for use in multispectral projectors are discussed.

In this report, we examine whether photonic IR emitters are able to compete with advanced thermal microemitter technology in testing and stimulating IR sensors, including forward-looking IR missile warning systems, IR search-and-track devices, and missile seekers. We consider fundamentals, technology, and parameters of photonic devices as well as their pros and cons in respect to thermal emitters. In particular, we show that photonic devices can from platform for next generation of multi-spectral and hyper-spectral dynamic scene simulation devices operating inside MWIR and LWIR bands with high spectral output density and able to simulate dynamically cold scenes (without cryogenic cooling) and low observable with very high frame rate.

Military applications demand more and more complex, multifunctional microsystems with performance characteristics which can only be achieved by using best-of-breed materials and device technologies for the microsystem components. Three-dimensional (3-D) integration of separate, individually complete device layers provides a way to build complex microsystems without compromising the system performance and fabrication yield. In the 3-D integration approach, each device layer is fabricated separately using optimized materials and processes. The layers are stacked and interconnected through area array vertical interconnects with lengths on the order of just tens of microns. This paper will review recent advances in development of 3-D integration technologies with focus on those which enable integration of heterogeneous materials (e.g. HgCdTe FPAs with silicon ROICs) or heterogeneous fabrication processes (e.g. resistive IR emitters with RIICs).

Naval Research Laboratory has developed IR transmitting fiber and IR fiber sources which can be used for HWIL testing. IR transmitting fiber is capable of broad transmission from near IR to LWIR and can be formed into bundles for imaging. IR fiber sources are based on rare earth doped glass or nonlinear processes in the glass and are cable of high brightness IR emission. Recently, NRL developed a four emitter MWIR fiber source which is capable of high temperature simulation, high dynamic range, and fast response. New broadband fiber sources based upon IR supercontinuum generation in IR fibers are also being developed. In this paper, we will report on these technologies.

We have evaluated several methods for generating multi-color emission for IR scene projector applications. The baseline requirements we employed were the ability to simulate color temperatures in the range 300-3000 K, minimum radiance levels consistent with existing IR sensor requirements, 1000 Hz frame rates and manufacturability. The analysis led us to down select two independent approaches that are capable of meeting HWIL multicolor requirements. We describe and discuss each of the approaches, their expected performance as well as their limitations.