An Introduction to Semi-Active Laser (SAL) Designation and Guidance EE 692 12/10/2003 Abstract Semi-Active Laser (SAL) guidance is used

extensively in the modern battlefield on multiple weapon systems ranging from rockets to missiles to guided bombs. The SAL guidance scheme relies on a laser designator to illuminate a target with reflected light, and the weapon system will contain a seeker, usually a quadrant detector, for homing in on the energy reflected from the target. SAL guidance is a relatively cheap and accurate way of engaging targets, but can be susceptible to degradation in performance due to environmental (natural weather) effects and countermeasures. This paper will introduce the equations and concepts needed to produce SAL synthetic signal data to drive missile simulations. To accomplish the creation of the synthetic SAL data we shall look at how geometry, beam divergence, target size, and clutter become factors in the mathematical representation of a pulsed laser illuminated target return signal as seen by the seeker head.Investigating how geometry, beam divergence, target size, and clutter become factors in the mathematical representation of a pulsed laser illuminated target return signal as seen by the seeker head must be done in order to create the synthetic SAL data. Introduction Invented in 1960, the laser (light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation) has made a valuable contribution to the modern weapons being used on the battlefield today. The first weapon systems employing laser guidance were the Maverick, Copperhead, and Hellfire weapon systems which entered service in the late 1970s. These weapon systems employed 1.06 micron semi-active laser homing seekers, which are still being developed for the weapon systems of today. These weapon systems are said to be semi-active because they do not originate the laser energy that they receive and track, in other words, the weapon system does not have a laser source installed but relies on an external laser designator. A laser beam is a highly focused electromagnetic energy beam which can be thought of as being coherent. Coherency refers to the fact that all of the energy in the beam is at the same frequency and phase. The use of short wavelengths allow for the creation of a virtually non-spreading laser beam that can be placed onto a single entity in a target rich environment with little to no energy spill over. Laser designators radiate the narrow beam of pulsed energy, which allows for the measurement of range using the same techniques as a radar system where the pulse is sent out and the round trip time is divided by two. Many current tactical lasers operate in the near-infrared wavelength spectrum, which is not visible to the human eye. Materials chosen for the production of Continuous Wave (CW) Lasers include Carbon Dioxide (CO2), Helium-Neon (He-Ne), and Argon (Ar). Materials chosen for the production of Pulsed Lasers include Neodymium with Yttrium Aluminum Garnet (YAG) crystals (Nd:YAG), and Gallium Arsenide (GaAs), and Ruby and Neodymium-Glass (Nd-Glass). Information on the CW and Pulsed Lasers is given in the table below. CONTINUOUS WAVE (CW) LASERS WAVELENGTH, POWER, W PULSE m DURATION, nsec 10.6 1400-1800 N/A 0.633 0.05-0.1 N/A 0.514 5 N/A PULSED LASERS WAVELENGTH, ENERGY, J PULSE m DURATION, nsec 1.06 0.02-0.04 10-25 0.9 0.0001 100-150 0.694 7-9 3-5

TYPE CO2 He-Ne Ar TYPE Nd:YAG GaAs Ruby

PULSE REPETITION RATE N/A N/A N/A PULSE REPETITION RATE 100 sec-1 100 sec-1 20 min-1

Nd-glass

0.53

20-30

20

12 hr-1

Table 1. Specific Laser Values. In the scope of this paper, we will mainly consider the Pulsed Lasers, specifically the Nd:YAG variant will mainly be considered. For a weapon system to achieve semi-active laser guidance, it must use some sort of detection scheme to resolve the energy from the laser designator. Within the scope of this paper, we will consider a four quadrant detector scheme to resolve the reflected energy, whereas a defocused image (spot) will be projected onto the four quadrants to allow the weapon to calculate pitch and yaw needed to command the weapon to guide itself to the source of the energy (the reflection of the energy off of the target surface) will be considered. Theory The laser beam that a laser designator emits is a narrow beam of pulses that has characteristics of being a single color (single wavelength) and divergent. Laser designation suffers from qualities such as beam divergence, spot jitter, attenuation, backscatter, overspill, and underspill. The laser spot size at the target is a function of the range from the designator to the target to the beam divergence. Beam divergence is defined by the fact that as the range from laser designator to the target being designated increases, then the laser spot diameter at the target increases. The quantity of beam divergence will differ between types of designators because of differences in the optics of each designator. Spot jitter is the product of motion of the laser designator and atmospheric disturbances producing a random movement of the laser spot about the intended aim point. A certain portion of the laser beam energy that is scattered by obscurants and atmosphere resulting in reduced laser energy as seen by the seeker;, this condition is known as attenuation. Laser energy can be scattered back in the direction of the seeker off of atmospheric particles or obscurants such as dust or smoke in the laser path, ; this condition is known as backscatter. Backscatter energy competes with the reflected energy from the true target, and the seeker may lock onto the energy from obscurant rather than the true target. Overspill and underspill is caused by either placing the laser spot too high or too low on the target so that beam divergence and spot jitter cause the spot or a portion of the spot to spill over onto an object or the terrain behind or in front of the true target. Overspill and underspill can cause intermittent background and foreground false targets. [1] Beam Divergence For a coherent monochromatic light source, such as a laser, beam divergence is primarily affected by the beam exit diameter and wavelength. The equation for a plane wave source is [2]:

FA =
where: FA is the Full-Angle Divergence in radians. is the wavelength in meters.

4 d beam

d beam is the initial beam diameter in meters.

Spot Radius In the late 1970s, an empirical algorithm was developed to compute laser beam spread as a function of range, atmospheric turbulence, and other laser characteristics. The equation cited for beam radius, rfinal, of a laser at range to the target, Rtgt, is as follows [3]:

r final = rbeam (1 ( Rtgt / f )) 2 + ( Rtgt / k 2 / rbeam ) + 6.2 Rtgt k 2 / 5 ( C n ( s )( s / Rtgt ) 5 / 3 ds) 6 / 5

2 2 2 2 2 2

where: rbeam is the initial radius from the output of the designator ( d beam / 2 ). f is the optical system focal length. k is the wave number (2/).

 is the wavelength. Cn is the refractive index structure (atmospheric turbulence parameters) constant. The first term within this equation accounts for the geometrical optics associated with the laser, an initially diverging beam is correspondent to a negative focal length. This may be realized in figure below where r1 is the radius due to the half-angle divergence, , where = FA / 2 .

Figure 1. Beam Spread due to Divergence. From the figure above:

r1 = (rbeam + Rtgt ) 2
2

This corresponds to the first term in the equation for the beam radius if f=-rbeam/. The second term in the beam radius equation is due to diffraction.

r2 = ( Rtgt / krbeam ) 2
The third term in the beam radius equation is due to the turbulence, if the turbulence is constant over the laser path, then:

r3 = 1.9k 2 / 5Cn
Rtgt / n 2 Rtgt / n 2 n

12 / 5

Rtgt

16 / 5

If the laser path is divided into n equal segments, and Cn2 is measured for each segment, the third term in the equation becomes:

r3 = 6.2k
2

2/5

C
0

(1) s

5/3

ds +
16 / 5

Rtgt / n

Rtgt 2 n

( 2) s

5/3

ds + ... +
2

2 n ( n 1) Rtgt / n

(n) s 5 / 3 ds ) 6 / 5
2

which simplifies to:

r3 = 1.9k 2 / 5 (1/ n)16 / 5 Rtgt

( K1Cn (1) + K 2Cn (2) + ... + K n Cn (n))6 / 5

where: K1=1, K2=28/3-1, K3=38/3-28/3, , Kn=n8/3-(n-1)8/3 It should be noted that the integration is from the target to the laser, which causes the turbulence effects to be biased more toward the laser; in other words, strong turbulence near the laser results in a larger beam at the target than strong turbulence near the target. The final laser beam radius at the target range can now be expressed as:

r final = r1 + r2 + r3
Laser Designator Range Equations

In most of the calculations that we will be interested inused for laser designation, we it can be assumed that we it will be in the near-field or Fresnel region where the laser cross section of the target must be carefully considered. The equation to be in the far field, i.e. where the radiation is approximately planar [1], is:

R>
where:

2 Do2

Do2 is the diameter of the optics (aperture) squared

As an example, for a wavelength of 1.06m we have the following: Aperture (in) 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Onset of Far Field (m) 1217.28 4869.13 10955.55 19476.53 30432.08 43822.19 59646.87 77906.11

Table 2. Far Field Values for 1.06m Laser. The laser cross section of a target for applications in the near-field is defined as [1]:

4dA

where: is the scattering solid angle of a target in steradians. is the target reflectivity.

dA is the illuminated area of target.

The value of is dependent upon the type of surface illuminated. For laser scattering with diffuse targets, we it can be assumed that it is a Lambertian target scattering model, and therefore = . Lambertian targets are typically assumed, when scattering peaks in the specular direction falls off as the scattering direction moves away from specular [1]. We shall consider three Three cases for calculating the power received at the seeker dome that is transmitted from the designator are considered. The three cases shall consist of a resolved target (where the target is larger than the beam), an unresolved target (where the beam is larger than the target), and a clutter target (where the beam is illuminating ground clutter). The resolved target case is shown in the figure below.

Figure 2. Resolved Target Scenario [4]. The equations governing the above scenario for a resolved target are as follows [1], [4]:

The above equation for the received power for the resolved target case simplifies to:

PR =

PT AS Tad Tas cos 2 RS

where: PT is the laser energy in one pulse transmitted from the designator.

AS is the area of the seeker aperture Tad is the atmospheric transmission in the path from the laser designator to the target, which is a function
of laser wavelength, visibility, designator range and altitude. Tas is the atmospheric transmission in the path from the target to the seeker, this parameter is also a function of laser wavelength, visibility, seeker range (Rs) and the seeker altitude. cos is the cosine of the angle between the laser designator path and the seeker path. The inclusion of cos in the equation results from the assumption that the target surface is a Lambertian reflector (when = 0, reflectivity is maximum, and when approaches 90 the reflectivity approaches zero). The unresolved target case is shown in the figure below.

Figure 3. Unresolved Target Scenario [4]. The equations governing the above scenario for an unresolved target are as follows [1], [4]:

The above equation for the received power for the unresolved target case simplifies to:

PR =

4 PT T AS Tad Tas cos 2 2 2 2 RD RS FA

The clutter target case is shown in the figure below.

Figure 4. Clutter Target Scenario [4]. The equations governing the above scenario for a clutter target are as follows [1], [4]:

The above equation for the received power for the clutter target case simplifies to:

PR =

PT AS Tad Tas cos 2 RS sin

Noise equivalent power (NEP) can be defined as the power or intensity of radiation that must be incident on a detector in order to produce a signal equal to the intrinsic noise of the detector. The equation for the NEP can be given as follows [1]:

NEP =
where:

AD F
* Dd

, Watts

F is the electrical noise bandwidth.

AD is the area of the detector in cm2.

* Dd is the specific detector detectivity.

The signal-to-noise ratio, often abbreviated SNR or S/N, is a term for the ratio between the maximum possible signal and the background noise, and can be useful for the tracking of targets. The received SNR at the semi-active laser seeker for a resolved Lambertian target is given as follows [1]:

SNR =

* P A T T cos Dd PR = T S 2ad as NEP RS AD F

Because many signals have a very wide dynamic range, SNR is usually expressed in terms of the logarithmic decibel scale. The SNR in decibels is 10 times the logarithm of the power ratio and can be calculated as follows:

SNRdB = 10 log10 ( SNR )

Another useful calculation to determine if a seeker can track a specific target that is being illuminated is the signal-to-threshold ratio (S/T). S/T defines the ratio of the laser signal strength at the seeker to the seeker threshold. If the S/T value is one or greater then the seeker can track the target but if the S/T is less than one the target cannot be tracked. S/T is defined as follows [3]:

S /T =

E d Tad Tas ( P ) cos 2 RS ETH

where: Ed is the laser pulse energy in Joules from the designator.

P is the percentage of the laser beam that falls on the true target. ETH is the seeker threshold in Joules/cm2 which can be a constant value or be designed to be a function of
the NEP. Quadrant Detector Guidance Scheme

Laser energy reflected from the target enters the front, or dome optics, of the weapon system. The dome optics includes a band-pass filter to block energy outside the 1.06 m laser wavelength. The high contrast image of the laser spot is defocused on to a photodetector assembly, mounted directly behind the dome. The photodetector is usually a quad cell detector, which is a photodiode whose active area is partitioned into four discrete quadrants. This scheme is shown in the figure below.

Figure 5. Quadrant Detector Scheme [5]. The defocused spot is projected onto the four quadrants to allow currents to flow. These currents can be taken as a measure of how much energy in the defocused spot lies on each specific detector. Next, azimuth and elevation corrections can be calculated from this data (see equations for EL and AZ from figure above), and the weapon system can use this information to steer itself onto a collision course with the source of the reflected energy. Conclusion The information and equations presented within this paper represent a basis for the formulation of simplistic synthetic SAL signal generation, as well as the needed guidance to control a SAL guided weapon flight path to a reflected energy return. The equations as presented allow for the use of a rectangular flat plate simple target, but could be easily modified to use high-fidelity facetized target geometry with multiple parts and different values of reflectance. Some of the current downfalls of simulating laser energy returns from high-fidelity geometry have to do with the time that it takes to simulate each specific facet of the models, but with new techniques such as hardware accelerated graphics and OpenGL the time taken to process these simulations should dramatically decrease. Do not use any personal 1st or 2nd voice pronouns (I, me, we, us, you) in a technical paper!!!!! It detracts from the technicality and makes it sound like a story. References [1] Class Notes: Tri-Mode Seeker Technologies - UAH Professional Development - Berinato 2003 [2] Photonics Rules of Thumb: Optics, Electro-Optics, Fiber Optics, and Lasers - John Lester Miller [3] Generation of Laser Energy Returns to Drive Laser Designated Weapon Systems - August 1980

[4] Millimeter-Wave and Infrared Multisensor Design and Signal Processing, Klein [5] ERIM The Infrared Handbook - Wolfe/Zissis 1989/1993 [6] Introduction to Sensor Systems - Hovanessian [7] RCA Electro-Optics Handbook