Multi-point sources and imaging compound infrared target simulator

Abstract

Infrared target simulator is an important unit in guidance hardware-in-the-loop simulation systems. It is used to simulate the radiation and motion characteristics of target, decoy and background. This paper proposed a multi-channel IR target simulator. It could generate one IR point target, two pairs of IR decoys and background respectively in the same field of view of the seeker’s optical system simultaneously. An IR imaging fiber bundle as the focal plane of the projection optical system was used to compound the target, decoys and background. The compound scene was projected to the seeker by the projection optical system. In IR imaging channel, IR scene was generated by an optical film chip as a visible to thermal transducer which was placed in a vacuum cell. The simulated temperature range of IR scene could be from room temperature to 430K.The thin film transducer had 512×512 pixels. Its frame rate could reach to 100Hz. Light sources with high equivalent black body temperature were adopted in IR target and decoy channels. The size and the radiation intensity of the IR point target and decoys could be controlled by pin holes and attenuators. The point target and decoys driven by high precise motors could travel through the whole instantaneous field of view of the seeker’s optical system. Two pairs of decoys could move away from the center to the edge of the instantaneous field of view. The highest simulated black body temperature of the point source was 1200K.