Electromagnetic Beam Power Combining via Guide Beam Alignment
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing directed energy systems face limitations in delivering high electromagnetic beam power to a target due to boresight errors when using multiple weaker radiation sources, which restrict the ability to concentrate energy effectively on a common spot.
Innovation Solution
A coordinated and synchronized system of firing units, each comprising a guide beam generator and a power beam generator, where the guide beam serves as a reference to align and correct the power beam's direction, ensuring all beams converge on a common aim-point on the target, with a coordinator unit assigning one unit as the master to establish a coordinate system for slave units to follow.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Power
If a plurality of weaker EM radiation sources are used to achieve high total power, then the power delivered to target can be increased, but the ability to concentrate energy on a common spot is limited by boresight errors of each radiation source
Solution Approach 1:
A guide beam is introduced as an intermediary element between the power beam and the target. The guide beam, which has high beam quality and low divergence, creates a reference spot on the target that serves as a mediator for alignment. The power beam is then directed to converge on this reference spot, allowing multiple weaker power beams to be precisely coordinated despite boresight errors in their individual pointing systems.
Solution Approach 2:
The system implements feedback by using the guide beam spot on the target as a reference for correcting power beam alignment. The position and characteristics of the guide spot provide feedback information that enables adjustment of the power beam pointing to ensure convergence on the common aim-point, thereby compensating for boresight errors across multiple radiation sources.
2Power
If multiple radiation sources are coordinated to fire at a common target, then the delivered power can be increased, but the complexity of coordination and synchronization increases
Solution Approach 1:
The guide beam acts as a common intermediary reference that simplifies the coordination problem. Instead of requiring complex inter-beam communication and synchronization between multiple power beams, each power beam independently tracks and converges on the guide beam spot. This intermediary reference reduces the coordination complexity by providing a simple, common target point for all power beams to aim at.
Solution Approach 2:
The system uses the guide beam to create a reference spot that serves as a simplified copy or representation of the desired convergence point. Rather than directly coordinating multiple complex power beams with each other, the system creates a simpler guide spot that replicates the target location, making the coordination task easier by reducing it to a single-point tracking problem for all power beams.
Data Source
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AI summary
A method for combining power of separate directed energy beams each associated with a separate firing unit, on a common spot on target. The firing units are coordination and synchronization unit (FUSU) tracks a target and assigns a master firing unit and slave firing units. The master firing unit sends a guide beam to the target, forming a local coordinate system on said target, while the slave firing units track the target and track at least one spot of EM (electromagnetic) radiation on the target. The slave units calculate a direction vector, and fire a power beam at the target, together with the master unit..