Missile-borne Domes

Missile-borne domes

The optical dome is an important component of the infrared imaging seeker, which plays a role in collecting infrared light signals at the forefront. In terms of material selection, it is necessary to be able to withstand high aerodynamic pressure while also having a certain strength to withstand hail attack.

Material selection of dome

According to the windows through which infrared light can pass in the atmospheric components, it can be divided into:

Short wave infrared     SWIR: 1-2.5um

Medium wave infrared   MWIR: 3-5um

Long wave infrared     LWIR: 8-14um

The material selection of the IIR seeker dome needs to consider the following factors:

1. Optical performance: transmittance covers 3 infrared band atmospheric windows as far as possible

2. Physical performance: It needs to withstand high aerodynamic heating temperature and pressure during high-speed flight, and is resistant to hail attack

3. Composite guidance: To be considered in combination with laser guidance and radar guidance for multimodal guidance

4. Feasibility: Need to consider material batch growth/processing difficulty, various production, and processing costs, etc.

The material selection for the mainstream infrared seeker dome is as follows:

Short wave and medium wave: sapphire/spinel/multispectral Zinc sulfide

Medium wave: sapphire/hot pressed Zinc sulfide/hot pressed Magnesium fluoride/CVD Zinc sulfide/Multispectral Zinc sulfide

Medium wave and long wave: CVD Zinc sulfide/germanium/multispectral Zinc sulfide

Full wave: multispectral Zinc sulfide (mainstream and trend)/diamond (in the future, current materials and processes cannot be realized)

As a difficult problem in optical processing, infrared large and soft dome always had two pain points: 
1. The material is relatively soft, making it difficult to achieve surface smoothness;

2. The material deforms severely during the processing, making it difficult to control the surface figure.

As one of the two goals that Anticipation Photonics aims to solve, we have conducted extensive process exploration and research and development work on batch processing of high-precision and large-sized infrared fairing. 

We have successively applied for 9 utility model patents and 1 invention patent in the field of domes processing, successfully solving a series of difficulties in batch processing. We have delivered more than 10 models, with a total quantity of over 1000 polished coating products.