<title>The U.S. Army Program For Improving Near-Millimeter Wave Power And Energy Standards</title>

Abstract

ABSTRACTIn this paper we describe the US Army Metrology and Calibration Center's (USAMCC's)efforts to obtain about a five -fold improvement in the accuracy of power and energy stand-ards for the Far Infrared (FIR) spectral region, 0.1 -1.2 mm. Total uncertainties for mostFIR calibrations are placed at + 25% or worse, with no traceability to National Standards.Our goal is to establish, by the end of 1981, FIR reference standards with assigned uncer-tainties approaching + 5 %, directly traceable to infrared standards maintained by the USNational Bureau of Standards (NBS). At that time, we also expect to initiate measurementand calibration services for the Army and other Department of Defense (DOD) agencies. To date, our program has resulted in the National Physical Laboratory (NPL), the nationalstandards laboratory of England, delivering to us a British power meter calibrated with anoverall uncertainty of + 11 %. This recent NPL effort represents the latest state -of- the -artfor FIR calibrations.IntroductionThere is presently strong military interest in exploiting the millimeter wave spectralregion for all- weather surveillance and missile guidance. USAMCC, in cooperation with NBSand other DOD agencies, already has a strong effort to establish mm standards at 94, 140,and 220 GHz (3.2, 2.1 and 1.4 mm), using both guided wave and quasi- optical techniques.