In a modern electro-optical targeting system (EOTS), the importance of technologies for emitting laser light from an aircraft to a target on earth and recognizing and detecting the target has been emphasized, with the introduction of technologies capable of guiding a missile to a desired target. Existing electro-optical targeting systems have featured individual optical systems of independent structures, consisting of the electro-optics (EO) band, the infrared (IR) band, and a laser module [1-5]. The electro-optical targeting system has shown improved performance and functions according to the development of its operational methods, with developed optics that connects every module, and with a common structure of every optical system and optical window [6-9]. As a result, miniaturization and weight reduction have become possible, and the targeting accuracy of this system has improved due to the large-diameter optics. Figure 1 shows images of an individual aperture and a common-aperture EOTS.

The common-aperture EOTS shows enhanced tracking performance, due to the use of a dual field of view in the infrared optical system as in Fig. 2, to recognize a target accurately regardless of weather conditions and to meet users’ requirements [10, 11]. The zoom lens system, which rapidly expands or shrinks the image of a target and has high accuracy, improves recognition and enhances tracking performance [12, 13]. Concerning the zoom lens system of the IR optical system, in a situation where the target should be recognized quickly and the response should be made immediately, the continuous zoom variation method has problems, in that speed becomes conspicuously slow, and chromatic aberrations and errors occur due to issues related to the optical axis alignment. Therefore, the stepwise zoom method of lens insertion is often utilized, to increase the optical axis stability and speed. The present optical system is designed with a common optical path and system that integrates the EO band, the IR band, and the laser module. Accordingly, it uses a common optical path shared by the laser module. As a result, the LOS (line of sight) error between the sensors at long distances is decreased considerably, thus improving the targeting accuracy as well.

We report here a midinfrared dual-field-of-view (FOV) optical system design for an airborne electro-optical targeting system. To achieve miniaturization and weight reduction of the system, it has a common aperture and fore-optics for three spectral wavelength bands (EO, IR, and the laser module). Housand et al. patented a compact optical design for a dual-FOV IR system with EO and laser commonaperture optics, as we here aim to achieve [14]. Figure 3 shows the schematic optical layout of the patented system. The optics is mechanically split into three groups (common aperture fore-optics, IR optics zoom and relay group, and IR focus and laser group) to provide pitch and roll axis rotation of the light of sight. The entire optics, apart from the third group, can rotate around the front-to-back axis (roll), and the common-aperture fore-optics can rotate around the side-to-side axis (pitch). However, this design has an axis offset between the line of sight and the roll axis, which causes a nonuniform pupil shift as the system rolls around.

We modified the earlier design to have a fixed pupil position by co-aligning the line of sight and the roll axis. The fore-optics in the roll group is essentially an achromatized, collimated beam reducer for all bands. Following the fore-optics, the bands are split into the IR path and the EO/laser path by a beam splitter. The IR path then consists of a zoom lens group and a relay lens group. The IR path with the fore-optics provides two stepwise narrow and wide FOVs (1.50° × 1.20° to 5.40° × 4.32°), due to the insertion of another lens group into the zoom lens group. The following sections first describe the system approach, and then report the dual-FOV IR paths in detail, with analyzed performances.

We report a midinfrared dual-field-of-view (FOV) optical system design for an airborne electro-optical targeting system. To achieve miniaturization and weight reduction of the system, it has a common aperture and fore-optics for three spectral wavelength bands: an electro-optic (EO) band (0.6~0.9 μm), a midinfrared (IR) band (3.6~4.9 μm), and a designation laser wavelength (1.064 μm). Figure 3 shows the optical layout of the common-aperture targeting system that we report herein. It has a common optical axis for roll-axis rotation and the line of sight (LOS), and therefore does not have the entrance pupil shift reported in previous work while it rolls the fore-optics group.

The IR imaging system serves to record an IR image of a target at a distance from an IR detector with a resolution of 1280 × 1024 square pixels and a pixel pitch of 15 μm, in the thermal IR spectrum from 3.6 to 4.9 μm. The IR optics should provide two stepwise fields of view (narrow and wide). The wide field of view (WFOV, 5.4° × 4.3°) is 3.6 times as large as the narrow field of view (NFOV, 1.5° × 1.2°). We use the wide-FOV image first to find the target, and then the narrow-FOV image to recognize it. The dual-IR optics design should have the same stop position and f-number (f/5.3) conjugated to the cold stop internally provided by the IR detector. Table 1 tabulates the design requirements of the dual-FOV IR optical system.

To reduce the size of the overall optical system, we apply common-aperture fore-optics for the EO band, the IR band, and the laser designation. The IR optical system and the laser module share a common optical path, and are designed such that a beam of light is split into the two paths using a beam splitter. Figure 4 shows a schematic layout of the design, while Fig. 5 shows the three-dimensional layout of the design. Here we report the IR path in detail.

The IR path design consists of fore-optics, the zoom lens and relay lens, followed by the IR detector in sequence. Fold mirrors and beam splitters are also used to provide a compact layout, as well as roll and pitch axis rotation of the line of sight. The roll axis is co-aligned to the line of sight so that the entrance pupil position is kept constant as the optics rolls around, which eliminates the image coregistration process that would be required otherwise. The fore-optics is essentially an achromatized, collimated beam reducer for all bands. Following the fore-optics, the bands are split into the dual-FOV IR path and the EO/laser path by a beam splitter. The following dual-FOV IR path design consists of a zoom lens group and a relay lens group.

The fore-optics should be composed of materials with good transmittance over the wide spectrum from 0.6~4.9 μm, as it is common for all three bands: EO (0.7~0.9 μm), IR (3.6~4.9 μm) and the designation laser (1.064 μm) [14]. Table 2 lists six optical materials (BaF₂, CaF₂, Spinel, MgF₂, ZnS, and ZnSe) having relatively high transmittance over a wide spectrum. However, after an investigation of the availability, birefringence, and manufacturing ease of these materials, only three materials (BaF₂, MgF₂, and ZnS) were ultimately chosen for the fore-optics design [15-17]. Table 2 lists the optical properties of the selected materials.

The fore-optics is essentially a collimated beam reducer with a 3.75 reduction ratio, achromatized for all bands, consisting of the two lens groups. Figure 6 shows each beam path for the four bands. The stop position and size of each path are predetermined in the system layout design. Specifically, the stops of the IR paths are conjugated to the cold stop of the IR detector by the subsequent IR paths. Each group is initially designed with a combination of three types of glass (BaF₂, MgF₂, and ZnS), to remove partial dispersion and minor residual chromatic aberrations, using Eqs. (1)~(3). During the selection of the combination of the material, we attempt to minimize the root-mean-square (RMS) of each optical power, as represented by W in Eq. (4), to minimize spherical aberration. This parameter has the advantage of being independent of the lens magnification, aperture size, and angle of view parameters. The two optics groups are then combined and re-optimized together.

The following IR path is then designed using germanium and silicon, both of which have satisfactory transmittance in the IR band. Zoom-lens compensation methods include mechanical, optical, and electronic compensation systems. Among them, this paper uses a mechanical compensation system, consisting of a zoom lens group for magnification conversion and a compensation lens group for correction of the image plane and position variation [18]. The mechanical compensation system includes a continuous zoom optics system, in which the arrangement of the lenses changes continuously, and a stepwise zoom optics system, in which the magnification ratio is changed by inserting another lens group. Figure 7 below shows the stepwise zoom optical system that flips the lens in and out.

In the IR optical system configuration, the relay lens group is located behind the IR zoom lens group. The relay lens group is designed to conjugate the image formed by the fore-optics and the IR zoom lens group to an intermediate image to the IR cold stop conjugation optics, as reported in the next section. Figure 8 shows a schematic diagram of the relay optics, and Fig. 9 shows the two optical layouts for the NFOV and WFOV IR paths.

The IR optical system uses a detector sensitive to thermal radiation, and cools to the liquid-nitrogen temperature range for increased sensitivity. The detector has a cold shield to increase the sensitivity, and plays a role in limiting the amount of warm background flux. Cameras operating in the thermal infrared band (mid- and long-wavelength IR) use a cold stop designed to match the exit pupil of the optics, to avoid parasitic radiation or vignetting, using 100% of the cold stop efficiency [19].

An f-number-matched optical system and an IR camera are required to ensure optimal image quality in the thermal IR. The IR optical system is designed in such a way that the location and f-number (f/5.3) of the cold stop internally provided by the IR detector are maintained when changing the zoom. Figure 10 shows an image of the IR detector and the corresponding cross-sectional view of the cold stop; the cold stop conjugation is also shown in Fig. 11.

The overall lens layouts for the narrow- and wide-FOV IR paths are plotted in Fig. 11. Figure 12 plots an equivalent folded optical layout of the narrow-field-of-view IR path. Figures 13 and 14 show the optical performances of the NFOV and WFOV IR path designs respectively. At the Nyquist frequency of the detector, i.e. 33 lp/mm, the on-axis MTFs of both designs exceed 14%. The distortion of the entire narrow-field optical system is less than 2% and 1% on the NFOV and the WFOV paths respectively.

This paper proposes a dual-FOV IR optical system with a common aperture for the EO band (0.7~0.9 μm), the IR band (3.6~4.9 μm), and the designator laser (1.064 μm). It provides roll and pitch axis rotation to steer the line of sight. Our design is initially proposed to co-align the roll axis, and the line of sight consequently has a fixed entrance pupil position for all optical paths.

The proposed design following the IR path consists of a common aperture and fore-optics, an IR zoom lens group, an IR relay lens group, and IR stop conjugation optics. The fore-optics is essentially an achromatized, collimated beam reducer for four different wavebands (EO, designator laser, IR NFOV, and IR WFOV). Following the fore-optics, the bands are split into a dual-FOV IR path and an EO/laser path by a beam splitter. The subsequent dual-FOV IR path design consists of a zoom lens group and a relay lens group. The IR path with the fore-optics provides two stepwise FOVs (1.50° × 1.20° to 5.40° × 4.32°), due to the insertion of two Si lenses into the zoom lens group. The IR optical system is designed in such a way that the location and f-number (f/5.3) of the cold stop internally provided by the IR detector are maintained when changing the zoom.

The reported design satisfies several notable performance requirements, including on-axis MTF > 10% at the Nyquist frequency of the IR detector pitch, and distortion below 2%. Further research can concentrate on thermal stability during optical performance of the design.