Research and development of an integrated Electro-Optical and Radio Frequency aperture

Due to the fact that real estate on specific platforms (i.e. physical space on an aircraft) is already very crowded, it is difficult to house the many optical sensors, antennas or other sensor components onto such tight-spaced platforms. Therefore, in this paper, an Electro-Optical (EO) system has been integrated with a Radio Frequency (RF) sensor to enable both EO and RF sensors to utilize the same real estate. Both sensors employ the same RF horn as a common aperture. The EO system consists of a liquid crystal spatial light modulator (LCSLM), a power turning beam splitter and a laser source. The LCSLM is used to induce a modulated wavefront onto the laser to steer, focus, filter aberrations (atmospheric or lens aberrations) and form images, which ultimately propagates through the RF/EO aperture (RF antenna horn). The EO and RF systems were each characterized before being introduced to each other, and after, as one system to ensure the two sensors could coexist. EO analyses were performed for optimal optical performance. Matlab algorithms were used to characterize the performance of the EO system before and after the RF aperture was introduced. Likewise, for the RF aperture, S11/VSWR and S21/gain tests were performed with and without the EO aperture/mirror.