SBIR/STTR Award attributes
To address the Air Force need for improvement of existing munition X-ray facilities to perform computed tomography, Physical Optics Corporation (POC) proposed and successfully completed design and development of the new Warhead High-Energy Computerized Tomography (WARHECT) system for extension of the capabilities of existing Air Force conventional high-energy X-ray radiography facilities (with a pulsed 3.5 or 6 MeV X-ray source) for full-size high-energy computed tomography of warheads (from 250 lb to 5,000 lb) which contain materials and components with a large range of densities (0.6 - 20 g/cm^3). Specifically, the innovation in the WARHECT design allows us to use the designed hardware for any current/prospective warheads, and results in minimal cost and time of existing facility equipment modifications to provide its complete functionalities as tomographic warhead facilities. Also WARHECT software will enable fully automatic operations, and the fast and effective tomographic image reconstruction and artifact reduction, which will provide high-quality high-resolution three-dimensional images of warheads, directly addressing the Air Force requirements. The Phase I prototype is currently at technology readiness level (TRL)-4. In Phase II, POC will develop WARHECT hardware and control and image processing software, and implement the fully functional WARHECT (TRL-6) at an Air Force high-energy X-ray facility.
