Three Concepts of High Angular Resolution Laser Irradiation Detectors (HARLID)

Abstract

The successful deployment of laser-aided weapons on the battlefield represents an important threat to aircraft, land vehicles and ships. Laser-guided missiles, bombs and projectiles are typical examples of the integration of laser sources into weapon systems. This proliferation of threatening lasers has created a need for laser warning receivers (LWR) and responsive countermeasures (CM) to provide self-protection. For this purpose, compact and simple detectors capable of measuring the angle of arrival (AOA) of laser radiation to accuracies within a few degrees are required. Exploratory studies undertaken at Defence Research Establishment Valcartier (DREV) identified several promising concepts to develop angularly coded detectors known as high angular resolution laser irradiation detectors (HARLID). This resulted in the development by Canadian industry of three silicon based HARLIDs which are described in this paper.