SBIR-STTR Award

The prevalence of precision guided munitions has increased dramatically in the previous decades, with estimates showing nearly 90% of munitions will be precision guided by 2020. Of these munitions over 90% are expected to be laser guided. There still exists a challenge in reliably laser designating a target in full daylight conditions. Expanding the current laser designator abilities to these mid-wave infrared (MWIR) wavelengths could dramatically improve the utility of laser designators under daylight conditions. Forward Photonics is a market leader and is innovating in the area of quantum cascade laser (QCL) laser modules for MWIR and long-wave infrared (LWIR) applications. Forward Photonics has produced the highest power, nearly diffraction limited QCL lasers with over 25 W of continuous wave (CW) power in the MWIR . Forward Photonics currently has three QCL laser development thrusts. First, the high powered QCL laser module, currently 25 W which in the near future will be expanded to 50 W under a SBIR program with collaboration from NAVSEA PMA-272. These laser modules have a single polarization and thus can be combined easily to double the power, for a total of 100 W MWIR power. We propose to apply this QCL technology to daytime markers.

There exists a challenge in observing laser designated targets in full daylight conditions for currently fielded near-infrared (NIR) laser designators. The visibility difficulty arises primarily from the significant background signal produced by the sun, which closely mimics the spectral signature of a blackbody . By extending the wavelength region in which laser designators/markers operate into the MWIR, the daytime visibility can be significantly improved. Forward Photonics proposes to build a multi-band NIR/MWIR laser designator to address this need. Our technical solution is based on our revolutionary MWIR lasers based on Wavelength Beam Combination of Quantum Cascade Lasers. Forward Photonics has produced the highest power, nearly diffraction limited QCL lasers with over 25 W of continuous wave (CW) power in the MWIR . Forward Photonics in the near future will be expand its record MWIR QCL power to 50 W. These laser modules have a single polarization and thus can be combined easily to double the power, for a total of 100 W MWIR power. These power and brightness levels are 10x to 100x higher than the state-of-the-art.