A Parametric Study Of Various Synthetic Aperture Telescope Configurations For Coherent Imaging Applications

James E. Harvey; Alan B. Wissinger; Alan N. Bunner

doi:10.1117/12.975530

13 October 1986 A Parametric Study Of Various Synthetic Aperture Telescope Configurations For Coherent Imaging Applications

James E. Harvey, Alan B. Wissinger, Alan N. Bunner

Author Affiliations +

Proceedings Volume 0643, Infrared, Adaptive, and Synthetic Aperture Optical Systems; (1986) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.975530
Event: 1986 Technical Symposium Southeast, 1986, Orlando, United States

Abstract

Synthetic aperture telescopes fall into two generic types; those consisting of a segmented primary mirror (perhaps substantially thinned or diluted) with a common secondary mirror, and those made up of an array of independent telescopes. Advantages and disadvantages of each type will be discussed. The diffraction-limited optical performance of several subaperture configurations (both redundant and non-redundant) will be presented and compared in terms of point spread function (PSF) characteristics and encircled energy plots. In practice, this ideal optical performance is degraded by various design, manufacturing, and operational errors. On-axis optical performance degradation due to rms phase errors, rms pointing errors, and rms focus errors between the subapertures making up the synthesized aperture will then be discussed. Coherent imaging with phased arrays of independent afocal telescopes essentially break down into two operations; 1) a pupil mapping operation in which the width-to-separation of the reduced beams entering the beam combining telescope must replicate that of the collecting subapertures, and 2) a Fourier Transform operation which forms the coherent image from these combined beams or subapertures. A quantitative analysis of the off-axis optical performance degradation due to pupil mapping errors will be presented, as will the field dependent effects of residual design aberrations of the independent telescopes. These inherent limitations will be discussed with respect to the field-of-view requirements of various applications of scenarios.

Citation Download Citation

James E. Harvey, Alan B. Wissinger, and Alan N. Bunner "A Parametric Study Of Various Synthetic Aperture Telescope Configurations For Coherent Imaging Applications", Proc. SPIE 0643, Infrared, Adaptive, and Synthetic Aperture Optical Systems, (13 October 1986); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.975530

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