Technology Today issue 1 2008 - Raytheon

Technology 

Today 

HIGHLIGHTING RAYTHEON’S TECHNOLOGY 

Raytheon’s Sensing Technologies 

Featuring innovative electro-optical 

and radio frequency systems 

2008 Issue 1

A Message From Dr. Taylor W. Lawrence 

Do you have an idea for an article? 

We are always looking for ways to connect 

with you — our Engineering, Technology and 

Mission Assurance professionals. If you have an 

article or an idea for an article regarding 

technical achievements, customer solutions, 

relationships, Mission Assurance, etc., send it 

along. If your topic aligns with a future issue of 

Technology Today or is appropriate for an online 

article, we will be happy to consider it and will 

contact you for more information. 

Send your article ideas to 

techtodayeditor@raytheon.com. 

2 2008 ISSUE 1 RAYTHEON TECHNOLOGY TODAY 

Vice President of Engineering, Technology and Mission Assurance 

Sensing is the first of Raytheon’s core markets, which is appropriate because sensing 

is where it all starts. Before our customers can react, shape or control their environments, 

they need to understand them. 

This is a wide market for Raytheon, both in terms of the customers we serve and 

the range of technologies we deploy. Raytheon sensors acquire precise situational 

data in the domains of air, space and water, and they span the full electromagnetic 

spectrum, from radio waves to gamma waves, and include many different modalities, 

from hyperspectral to acoustic sampling. 

This issue of Technology Today explores some of Raytheon’s newest capabilities in 

the Sensing market — from advances in high-definition infrared focal plane arrays 

and ladar sensors, to new applications for small, low-power RF radars. These 

advances in turn are providing users like pilots, warfighters and meteorologists 

improved speed, resolution and range to more quickly act on the information 

they receive. 

In this issue’s Leaders Corner column, we hear from Greg Alston, Raytheon’s vice 

president of Mission Assurance. Greg has really hit the ground running since joining 

us in June, and he discusses how he is developing an integrated enterprise 

Mission Assurance vision and strategy to drive organizational assurance and health. 

Lastly, I would like to congratulate our newest Excellence in Engineering and 

Technology Award recipients. Eighty-six outstanding Raytheon engineers and 

technologists were recognized in March with the company’s highest technical 

honor. They have achieved technological breakthroughs and demonstrated program 

excellence that contributed to the success of our customers and our company. The 

new standard of excellence they have set serves as an inspiration to us all. 

Until next time … 

Dr. Taylor W. Lawrence

View Technology Today online at: 

www.raytheon.com/technology_today/current 

Technology Today is published 

quarterly by the Office of Engineering, 

Technology and Mission Assurance. 

Vice President 

Dr. Taylor W. Lawrence 

Managing Editor 

Lee Ann Sousa 

Senior Editors 

Donna Acott 

Tom Georgon 

Kevin J. Wynn 

Art Director 

Debra Graham 

Photography 

Rob Carlson 

Bob Casper 

Dan Plumpton 

Bill Patterson III 

Website Design 

Joe Walch IV 

Publication Coordinator 

Dolores Priest 

Contributors 

Roopa Bhide 

Sue Booth 

Stephen Diehl 

Blythe Marshall 

Mike Nason 

Marcilene Pribonic 

Sean Price 

Sharon Stein 

Rick Steiner 

INSIDE THIS ISSUE 

Feature: Raytheon’s Sensing Technologies 

Electro-optical Sensors Overview 4 

High-Definition Infrared Focal Plane Arrays 5 

Next-Generation Lasers for Advanced Active EO Systems 

Advanced Radar Functionality at Optical Wavelengths 

9 

via Coherent Ladar 13 

Radio Frequency Sensors Overview 

Active Panel Array Technology Enables Affordable 

16 

Weather Radar 17 

Adaptive Land Enhanced Raytheon Radar Technology 20 

Leaders Corner: Q&A With Greg Alston 

Eye on Technology 

21 

Architecture & Systems Integration 24 

Raytheon Technology Networks Overview 25 

RF Systems 26 

Materials & Structures 28 

Processing Systems 

Events 

30 

SEtdp Graduates 57 Systems Engineers 31 

2007 Excellence in Engineering and Technology Awards 

Special Interest 

Raytheon Engineers Help MathMovesU Students Design 

32 

Rescue Device 

Prognostics and Health Management: Enhancing Mission 

34 

Assurance as Part of System Development 35 

U.S. and International Patents 38 

EDITOR’S NOTE 

It’s a new year with new challenges; but one thing is constant: our commitment to 

delivering world-class solutions using the most innovative technologies we can bring to 

bear on not just meeting, but exceeding, our customer’s expectations. 

This year’s first two issues will focus on two of our core technology markets, starting 

with sensing — from both an electro-optical and RF perspective. You’ll read about 

emerging high-definition focal plane array technology and its application in space 

surveillance systems, as well as the ALERRT portable perimeter security system now 

being field-tested by the U.S. Air Force. 

Also in this issue, you’ll learn more about our Excellence in Engineering and Technology 

Award winners, and get an early look at Raytheon’s efforts to develop a prognostics and 

health management system to ensure that our delivered systems continue operating in 

the field to ensure mission success. 

Enjoy! 

Lee Ann Sousa 

RAYTHEON TECHNOLOGY TODAY 2008 ISSUE 1 3

Feature 

Electro-optical Sensors 

Expanding the Frontiers of 

Military Sensing Technology 

Humans have always used technology to enhance their 

natural abilities to sense and transform the world around 

them. Recent technological advances have extended 

humans’ color vision to include other forms of electromagnetic 

energy (radio frequency, infrared and ultraviolet) with higher spectral 

resolution (multi- and hyper-spectral imaging). Active sensors — 

radar and ladar (laser radar) — allow us to measure distance with 

incredible accuracy and generate 3-D images that circumvent the 

diffraction limit. New sensing capabilities are on the horizon that 

will add a new temporal dimension to this sensing arsenal (micro- 

Doppler vibrometry). This issue’s electro-optical (EO) feature articles 

describe Raytheon’s recent advances in sensing technology for a 

variety of military, national and civil applications. 

For some, the term “night vision” conjures up images of a CNN 

broadcast from Baghdad, with its eerie green out-of-focus shots of 

anti-aircraft artillery firing blindly against a backdrop of towering 

minarets and onion-shaped palace domes. For others, “thermal 

imaging” reminds them of blurry pseudo-color thermographic 

maps of a house in a TV infomercial, selling them on the need for 

high-efficiency window glazing and insulation. Few, however, 

would associate either “thermal imaging” or “night vision” with 

the sharpness and format of a modern high-definition TV 

picture. Yet this is the reality of modern infrared technology 

described in our first feature article on the advances in infrared 

focal plane arrays from Raytheon Vision Systems in Goleta, Calif. 

In a recent article on “Benefits of Eyesafe Laser Technology” 

(Eye On Technology, Technology Today, Issue 2, 2007), a new lasing 

system was described, a system capable of efficiently extracting 

1.617 μm eyesafe radiation from a rod of erbium-doped yttrium 

aluminum garnet that is directly pumped by laser diodes. While 


adequate for low average power applications such as tactical ranging 

and telecommunications, this rod geometry is not well suited 

for moderate to high average power laser sources, which are needed 

in long-range target illumination, designation, 3-D imaging, and 

directed energy weapon systems. The problem is the rod’s shape, 

which requires that the heat generated in the lasing process flow 

radially from the center to the cooled barrel surface of the rod. 

The higher the power, the greater the temperature difference from 

center to edge, and the greater the attendant thermal lensing, 

stress birefringence (which leads to depolarization), and surface 

tension (which eventually leads to rod fracture). In our second 

feature article, we introduce a new high-aspect-ratio planar geometry 

for the laser gain medium that minimizes the temperature 

drop and guides the beam to maintain high extraction efficiency 

and good beam quality, even at high lasing powers. 

Synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imaging, one of the greatest inventions 

in military sensing technology at the end of the 20th century, 

routinely provides useful imagery for the intelligence, surveillance 

and reconnaissance community at substantial standoff ranges. In 

recent years, Raytheon has extended synthetic aperture sensing 

hardware and compatible image formation techniques to the optical 

regime, substantially improving the resolution of these venerable 

sensors. In solving the atmospheric phase error, platform 

motion, and target vibration problems at optical frequencies, our 

researchers have not only set the standard for synthetic aperture 

ladar image quality, but have opened a new realm of sensing capability: 

micro-Doppler vibrometry. In our third feature article, we 

explore these advances in coherent ladar sensors, which promise to 

further expand military sensing capability in the EO/IR regime. 

Bob Byren 

rwbyren@raytheon.com

High-Definition Infrared 

Focal Plane Arrays 

Enhance and Simplify 

Space Surveillance Sensors 

Feature 

Raytheon Vision Systems (RVS) has been providing light-sensing focal plane arrays for space applications for more than four decades, 

encompassing diverse applications, including weather data collection, space astronomy, Earth observation and missile surveillance. 

This extensive history of design and fabrication of high-performance focal plane arrays (FPA) for both tactical and strategic applications 

has allowed RVS to retain its position as one of the most technically advanced visible and infrared (IR) sensor houses in the country. 

The IR FPA consists of an infrared detector, which absorbs photons and generates a small voltage, and a readout integrated circuit (ROIC) 

that amplifies the voltage. These two components are hybridized together, with indium interconnects providing the electrical connection 

between each pixel in the array. Both the IR detectors and the ROIC are designed in-house at RVS’ Santa Barbara, Calif., facility. The detectors 

are fabricated with a variety of techniques and materials to provide application-specific spectral coverage over any portion of the 

infrared spectrum. One particular aspect of RVS’ FPA production is focused on missile surveillance for the national missile defense. 

A primary mission of the national missile defense is to effectively defend the United States against ballistic missile attack. This has multiple 

objectives, including surveillance, tracking, targeting and intercepting ballistic missiles during boost, midcourse or terminal phases. Spacebased 

infrared sensors provide a significant portion of the surveillance, tracking and targeting capabilities for the national missile defense. 

The satellite systems deploying the IR sensors have evolved over the years and have encompassed the Space Based Infrared System (SBIRS), 

Continued on page 6 


Feature 

Continued from page 5 

Space Tracking and Satellite Surveillance 

(STSS) system, Overhead Non-Imaging 

Infrared (ONIR) system, and Alternative 

Infrared Satellite System (AIRSS) efforts. 

Raytheon has worked with each of these 

efforts to some degree. As sensor technology 

matures, each generation of satellite 

systems incorporates the available improvements 

to provide increased surveillance 

capabilities. Advancements made in highdefinition 

IR FPA to recently enhance and 

simplify space surveillance systems are 

discussed here. 

Traditionally, FPAs for space surveillance 

have necessitated scanning arrays to ensure 

complete theater coverage. These involve 

complex optics and moving components to 

sweep the sensor field of view across a swath 

of the potential path of a ballistic missile. 

The sensor FOV is incrementally adjusted 

until the entire target area has been 

encompassed, then the sensor is returned 

to the starting configuration and the scan 

is repeated. This scan must be completed 

within a timeframe adequate to detect rapidly 

moving missile threats. Until recently, 

the use of scanning arrays was the conventional 

approach, and it has proven effective. 

Advancements in IR sensor technology 

have enabled increased array sizes and 

decreased pixel sizes to facilitate the routine 

production of large megapixel arrays 

(Figure 1). These are now attaining the 

technology readiness levels (TRL) necessary 

to be deployed in space surveillance satellites. 

Space surveillance systems demand 

64 x 64 

256 x 256 

128 x 128 

Digital Output 

8192 x 8192 

8µm 

2052 x 2052 

InSb/HgCdTe 

1344 x 1344 

InSb 

640 x 480 

(InSb&HCT) 

1024 x 1024 

4096 x 4096 

8µm 

1980 1990 2000 2005 


highly operable FPAs with low noise, in 

either traditional scanning or novel large 

format staring arrays, to rapidly survey 

large areas. 

RVS has demonstrated impressive array 

operabilities for large format FPA in formats 

up to 4 megapixel (2K x 2K) arrays 

with either 15 or 20 µm pixels for short 

wavelength and middle wavelength 

infrared (MWIR) detectors. MWIR response 

has been obtained using either InSb or 

HgCdTe photovoltaic detectors. These 

detectors exhibit excellent spectral 

response characteristics, including both 

high and uniform quantum efficiency over 

the spectral bands of interest. Advantages 

of HgCdTe typically include higher temperature 

operation compared to InSb, as well 

as the critical inherent tunable spectral 

response of HgCdTe, which can be readily 

adjusted during semiconductor growth for 

short, middle, or long wavelength IR 

response. The ROIC requires high data 

rates to output the data from more than 

four million pixels in each frame at sufficient 

frame rates to provide the 

necessary coverage. 

The FPA module assembly consists of the 

ROIC/detector hybrid mated to an adjoining 

motherboard with an on-board temperature 

sensor and two attached cables, all 

mounted on a supporting pedestal. An 

example of a space surveillance HgCdTe 

MWIR 2Kx2K FPA module assembly is 

shown in Figure 2. Primary figures of merit 

for IR FPA include both response and signalto-noise 

ratio (SNR). A common measure of 

2560 x 512 

25µm 

4096 x 4096 

20µm 

High-Definition Infrared FPAs 

the SNR is the noise equivalent irradiance 

(the minimum irradiance necessary to produce 

unity SNR). The FPA module in Figure 2 

has achieved high operability at temperatures 

of 110K with 99.8 percent response 

operability (operable pixels exhibit response 

within 25 percent of the array mean) and 

99.3 percent NEI operability (operable pixels 

exhibiting NEI within twice the array mean). 

This level of performance is more than sufficient 

for ONIR surveillance system needs. 

This FPA requires motherboard electronics 

on two sides only, allowing it to be close 

butted to additional arrays on two sides. 

This two-side buttable capability allows up 

to four FPAs to be tiled together providing 

an effective 16-megapixel (4Kx4K) FPA with 

larger sensor field of view coverage. Tiling 

multiple IR FPA together to generate a single 

large format array is an option RVS has 

used successfully in the past for groundbased 

astronomy applications, with a 4x4 

mosaic of 2Kx2K SWIR FPA modules creating 

an effective 64-megapixel FPA (Figure 3). 

This same tiling technique can be applied to 

the FPA module in Figure 2, or with recent 

technological advances, the manufacture of 

individual larger format arrays can be used 

to provide full continuous Earth coverage for 

missile surveillance systems. 

Recently, RVS, working jointly with Raytheon 

Space and Airborne Systems independent 

research and development (IR&D) funding, 

has scaled the MWIR 2Kx2K readout integrated 

circuit for space surveillance up to 

both 2Kx4K and 4Kx4K formats to meet 

future system needs. Ongoing develop- 

Figure 1. Progression of ROIC format at RVS over time Figure 2. 2Kx2K, 20µm pitch MWIR FPA module assembly

Figure 3. 64-megapixel FPA composed of 

sixteen SWIR 2Kx2K FPA modules 

ment of the technology to fabricate these 

increased format array sizes has focused 

on large area uniformity in diverse fields, 

including semiconductor growth, wafer and 

die polishing for flatness, and high-force 

hybridization. A single 4Kx4K ROIC die is 

greater than 8 cm on a side. The flatness 

requirements are equivalent to having a circu- 

ENGINEERING PROFILE 

lar lake one mile in diameter with no ripples 

across the entire lake greater than three inches 

high. Dealing with this type of flatness over 

huge thermal ranges requires in-depth understanding 

of all the thermal expansion properties 

of the materials used. Testing has its own 

unique concerns for handling the massive 

data throughput capability. To simply output 

data from a 16-megapixel array at 30 Hz 

requires 0.5 Gbps data rates. This necessitates 

low inductance and capacitance wiring 

schemes, as well as high-speed computers 

with vast amounts of memory capable of 

storing and manipulating large arrays of data. 

Each of these areas in fabrication and test 

of large format IR FPA has now improved to 

the point where the manufacture of 4Kx4K 

arrays is possible with minimal risk. A single 

eight-inch ROIC wafer from 2007 Raytheon 

IR&D is shown in Figure 4 containing 2Kx2K, 

2Kx4K, and 4Kx4K (4-, 8-, and 16-megapixel) 

die. Scaling up to the 16-megapixel FPA 

provides larger sensor FOV and improved 

Dr. Angelo Scotty Gilmore 

Principal Infrared System Engineer 

Raytheon Network Centric Systems 

Angelo Gilmore is a principal infrared system engineer 

in Raytheon Vision Systems (RVS). Current programs 

he works on include Alternative InfraRed Satellite 

System — a potential vehicle for ONIR to replace 

SBIRS HIGH. He was the program manager for this 

program for the last year. He also works on independent 

research and development efforts (IR&D) to 

improve the very long wavelength infrared focal plane 

array capabilities at RVS. 

Intrigued by physics at a young age, Gilmore recalled, 

“I was always interested in how things work, and my 

father suggested I study physics to further my understanding 

of everyday observations.” Gilmore said. “I was 

fascinated by the studies, and in graduate school began 

researching alternative energy solutions using solar 

power from CdTe photovoltaic detectors.” 

According to Gilmore, Raytheon Vision Systems’ 

infrared group has a large focus on HgCdTe photovoltaic 

detectors, and he sees this as a natural step from his 

previous experience. As an engineer, he found that his 

skills carried over into management, and he began leading 

IR&D efforts and small developmental programs. 

Feature 

Figure 4. Eight-inch SB395 ROIC wafer 

with 4Kx4K, 2Kx4K and 2Kx2K die 

full Earth coverage of the ballistic missile 

theater. Individual larger arrays are advantageous 

over tiling multiple smaller FPAs, and 

result in 100 percent coverage without the 

additional effort required to account for the 

gaps between tiled arrays. 


Gilmore believes the biggest challenges facing his current 

programs are the compressed timelines required to 

transfer new technologies into viable system solutions. 

To help meet that challenge, he said, “Raytheon needs 

continuing focus on the transition from development to 

production in order to reduce that cycle time and more 

rapidly field new technologies.” 

Growing up on a ranch, Gilmore developed the solid 

work ethic reflected in his philosophy that employees 

should “treat everyone as a customer, and give them the 

best value you can for their money, work and time.” 

Gilmore also believes his competitive nature has its 

roots in his position as the youngest of four children. 

“The combination of my work ethic and competitive 

nature has helped me excel throughout my education, 

and now in my career at Raytheon.” 

Five years after joining Raytheon, Gilmore remains 

excited about his work. “Designing and developing 

cutting-edge technologies that will make a difference 

to our country’s success continually excites me,” he 

said, noting, “Mission Assurance is not just a catch 

phrase in the field, and the products we make help 

our soldiers succeed.” 


Feature 


Current Raytheon IR&D has funded the 

prove-in of all the key fabrication steps 

required for this burgeoning technology. 

Highlights of these recent IR&D efforts 

include the design and fabrication of IR 

FPA-specific 4Kx4K ROICs; dramatic 

improvements to six-inch wafer, molecular 

beam epitaxy grown, HgCdTe detector uniformity; 

and the successful generation of a 

mock-up 4Kx4K array, to prove in the large 

format hybridization process. Routine fabrication 

of silicon ROIC wafers at RVS has 

ensured the handling procedures are in 

place for processing wafer up to eight inches 

in diameter. All this work leaves only the 

final step of fabrication and test of an IR 

FPA module in the 4Kx4K array format, 



planned in 2008. To the author’s knowledge, 

this will be the largest individual IR 

FPA fabricated to date. Each of these key 

efforts acts to reduce the manufacturing 

risk and improve the producibility of large 

format infrared FPA for space surveillance. 

In the future, large format staring arrays 

providing wide FOV coverage will replace 

complex scanning arrays in satellite surveillance 

systems. These staring arrays will 

eliminate the system-level moving components 

such as gimbals and pointing mirrors 

required for conventional scanning arrays. 

Staring arrays will prove advantageous in 

terms of the primary considerations for 

satellite systems, including size, weight, 

power and reliability. The incorporation of 

staring IR FPAs will simplify the satellite 

David M. Filgas 

Engineering Fellow 

Raytheon Space and Airborne Systems 

David Filgas is an engineering fellow at Space and 

Airborne Systems. Current programs he works on 

include K2, NSEP, SALTI, and IRAD projects related to 

development of laser systems for a variety of applications. 

Filgas has studied lasers since college. While working for 

an electrical engineering degree, he undertook a junioryear 

internship with a large laser company, and then as a 

senior, became involved with a laser startup company. He 

has worked in the laser field ever since. “I fell in love with 

lasers,” he said. “Looking back now, I have to chuckle when 

my parents remind me that my first word was ‘light.’” 

His prior career experiences helped Filgas build a foundation 

for his success after he joined Raytheon five years 

ago. After finishing a master’s degree, he worked for a 

large technology company, but left after a year “to escape 

the big-company bureaucracy.” 

He then went to work for a small startup company developing 

the highest power solid-state industrial laser in the 

world at that time. “I loved being on the technological 

cutting edge and the experience of working in a small 

company,” he said. “In a startup company, you have to 

wear a lot of hats.” In addition to being the chief laser scientist, 

he designed system components using CAD, programmed 

control systems, built production lasers, 

installed and serviced lasers in the field, conducted sales 

visits, and performed laser application studies. “I think 

High-Definition Infrared FPAs 

sensor system through fewer moving components 

leading to drastic reductions in the 

system weight. Reducing the number of 

moving components will also make it easier 

to satisfy the overall system reliability 

requirements. The enhancements in 

satellite surveillance made possible by large 

format staring arrays include 100 percent 

continuous full Earth coverage at higher 

frame rates than prior satellite systems. 

Future generations of satellite surveillance 

sensors will take advantage of the fundamental 

advancements provided by 

Raytheon’s large format staring IR FPAs 

to improve the nation’s missile defense 

network capabilities. 

Dr. Angelo Scotty Gilmore 

angelo_s_gilmore@raytheon.com 

Contributors: Stefan Baur, James Bangs 

the broad range of experiences I had working in a small 

company taught me to consider many larger system 

issues during the design process.” 

For Filgas, one of the most rewarding aspects of his 

work is being on the leading edge of technology. “There’s 

a real satisfaction in doing things that have never been 

done before. We’re fortunate to have jobs where we can 

actually turn our inventions and designs into reality.” 

Offering others advice for success at Raytheon, Filgas 

said, “I believe we can all benefit from staying involved 

with multiple projects. It helps avoid getting burned out 

on a particular program, and there are always benefits 

from cross-pollinating the experiences of one program 

with those of another.” 

The challenges Filgas sees in current programs hark back 

to his large-company experiences. “Doing fast-paced 

development work in a large organization like Raytheon 

is difficult. Developmental programs could really benefit 

from much more streamlined processes than we’re currently 

using,” he said, citing supply-chain delays as an 

example. In addition to their schedule impacts, delays 

impact our budgets because charge numbers tend to 

dwindle away while we wait for parts.” 

Filgas believes that streamlining processes is essential for 

Raytheon’s mission. “If we don’t develop state-of-the-art 

systems for our forces in a timely fashion, someone else 

will — and it might not be one of our allies. It being a 

large potential growth area for Raytheon, I believe that 

the laser technologies we’re developing can save lives.”

To maintain an advantage in today’s 

battlespace, our forces require the 

ability to engage targets at longer 

ranges and see them with higher resolution. 

Active electro-optical (EO) systems 

address this need, providing important mission 

capabilities such as ranging, tracking, 

marking, designating, 3-D imaging (ladar), 

chemical and biological agent detection, 

and laser defense using high-energy lasers 

(HELs). Compared to passive EO systems 

(FLIR or camera) or active radio frequency 

(RF) systems (radar), active EO systems allow 

us to increase both range and resolution 

and also to perform new types of missions. 

A critical component of any active EO 

system is the laser used to illuminate the 

target. To offer our customers the highest 

performance systems, we must utilize 

advanced lasers meeting ever more 

challenging requirements in the areas of 

laser power, beam quality, efficiency, size 

and weight. 

Lasers are inherently inefficient, converting 

only a portion of the electrical input power 

into useful laser output power. The size, 

weight and input power of a laser system 

are largely driven by two factors: 1) the 

average output power of the laser and 2) 

its efficiency. In the design of our active EO 

systems, we typically optimize the system 

design to minimize the required average 

power from the laser and then optimize the 

laser design for high efficiency. All lasers 

require a “gain medium,” a material that 

can emit a laser beam, and a “pump 

source,” a means of exciting atoms in the 

gain medium so that they emit light. 

Historically, most military laser systems have 

used arclamps to excite the laser gain medium 

with resulting efficiencies of just a few 

percent. During the past decade, efficiencies 

of 20 percent or more have been 

achieved by diode-pumped solid-state lasers 

due to development of high-power laser 

diodes as a more efficient means of exiting 

the gain medium, as well as advances in 

the gain medium configurations utilized. 

While laser diode pumping is a key factor in 

enabling high efficiency, scaling laser-output 

power while maintaining high beam quality 

necessitates improvements in the geometry 

of the gain medium itself. Due to the fact 

that lasers are not 100 percent efficient, 

significant amounts of waste heat are 

generated in the gain medium during laser 

operation. This waste heat can create 

distortions in the gain medium, adversely 

affecting important properties of the laser 

beam. Raytheon has long been at the 

forefront of laser technology development 

for military applications, and is currently 

focused on advanced laser architectures 

that leverage the benefits of laser diode 

pumping and address the shortcomings 

of conventional laser gain medium 

Feature 

Next-Generation Lasers 

for Advanced 

Active EO Systems 

architectures such 

as the venerable cylindrical 

rod and, more recently, bulk 

slab geometries. The optimal gain 

medium geometry for a given application 

varies, depending on the average power 

and laser waveform, but all of the 

advanced gain medium geometries 

employed by Raytheon seek to minimize 

the amount of waste heat and remove the 

waste heat from the gain medium in a 

manner that minimizes adverse effects on 

the quality of the laser beam. The goal of 

minimizing adverse thermal gradients within 

the gain medium has led Raytheon to 

focus on three primary gain medium 

geometries for advanced laser systems: 

microchip lasers, fiber lasers and planar 

waveguide lasers. 

Microchip lasers are very simple, robust 

devices for applications requiring up to 

~1W of average laser power. They can be 

operated in a pulsed mode with pulse energies 

up to ~1mJ and pulse widths as short 

as ~1 nanosecond, enabling peak powers 

up to 1MW. Fiber lasers and planar waveguide 

lasers both enable scaling of laser 

average power up to the kW level by using 

gain medium geometries with large surface- 



Feature Next-Generation Lasers 


area-to-volume ratios that provide efficient 

cooling of the gain medium and minimize 

adverse thermal effects. Both can also be 

efficiently pumped by laser diodes. In a 

fiber laser, the gain medium is configured 

as a long filament, while in a planar waveguide 

(PWG), the gain medium is configured 

as a thin sheet. Fiber lasers are well 

suited to applications with average powers 

up to 1kW when the pulse energy does not 

exceed a few mJ. Planar waveguide lasers 

are currently being developed by Raytheon 

for applications with average powers ranging 

from 10kW. The PWG has the 

potential to scale in average power to the MW 

level and produce pulse energies up to >1 J. 

Fiber lasers evolved out of the telecom 

community beginning in the late 1980s, 

when they were invented to enable massive 

increases in data throughput by directly 

amplifying the packets of laser light that 

carry information in fibers around the planet 

and under the oceans. During the past 

15 years or so, the power capability of fiber 

lasers has increased five orders of magnitude, 

from 10s of mW to several kW. 

Raytheon is now actively exploring how 

these efficient, versatile laser sources can be 

inserted into advanced defense systems. 

Figure 1 shows a fiber-based master oscillator, 

power amplifier configuration. The fiber 

gain medium is formed into a 10 cm coil, 

Micro-laser 

Remote fiber pigtailed pump diodes 

Passively cooled fiber 

~ 10 cm coil 


and it is excited by several pump diodes. 

Note that the pump power is directly coupled 

into the gain fiber through conventional 

passive fibers, thereby avoiding any 

free-space optics in the pump coupling 

function. A micro-laser generates a weak 

signal containing the properties appropriate 

for the intended application: wavelength, 

spectral bandwidth, temporal profile, beam 

quality, etc.; the fiber amplifier adds the 

power. We see that, unlike most other 

types of lasers, there are essentially no freespace 

optics in the signal channel — just 

robust, flexible fibers — and there is no 

need for a rigid, thermally stable optical 

bench. The inset shows the cross-section of 

a state-of-the-art cladding-pumped fiber 

amplifier. The active core occupies just a 

fraction of the fiber, with most of the 

cross-sectional area being made available 

to receive the diode pump power. The fiber 

is made sufficiently long that nearly all of 

the pump power is ultimately absorbed by 

the core, despite the small relative size of 

the core. Typical dimensions are core 

diameter ~ 20 μm, and pump cladding 

diameter ~ 400 μm. 

In addition to the packaging features of 

fiber lasers, they are also among the most 

efficient lasers ever built. One major factor 

leading to the high efficiency has to do 

with the tiny core along the fiber axis that 

contains the laser ion (typically Yb or Er), 

the pump light and the signal light. Since 

the pump and signal are closely confined 

Cladding-pumped fiber amplifier 

Cross-section 

Robust single-mode 

output beam quality 

Figure 1. Schematic diagram showing a fiber-based master oscillator, power amplifier laser 

system. Inset shows the cross-section of a cladding-pumped fiber amplifier. 

Core 

Pump cladding 

Outer cladding 

(typ. polymer) 

within the fiber, and the interaction length 

can be made very long (many meters, if 

necessary), very efficient conversion can 

occur from the pump power to signal 

power. Commercial fiber lasers typically 

demonstrate more than 70 percent power 

conversion efficiency from the pump to 

signal. Another feature is that the tiny core 

size does not allow anything but the lowest-order 

transverse spatial profile, which 

rigorously forces the beam divergence of 

the output signal to the minimum value 

allowed by fundamental physical laws. 

These and other features are summarized 

in Table 1. 

Table 1. Features of Fiber Lasers 

High efficiency, due to the excellent 

spatial overlap of the pump and signal 

Rigorously single-mode outputs 

Favorable thermal geometry with a large 

surface-to-volume ratio 

Compact size and considerable 

packaging flexibility 

Recent technical breakthroughs 

allowing power scaling to > 1kW with 

a single fiber 

Evolving all-fiber architectures free of any 

free-space propagation of signal beams 

Common pump-diode technology developed 

for bulk crystalline solid-state lasers 

A foundation in the telecom culture, 

with mature materials and processes that 

offer robust components with long 

operational lifetimes 

Not listed in Table 1 is “high power.” This is 

because the same tiny core that makes fiber 

lasers efficient and ensures excellent beam 

quality also makes it difficult to produce 

high-peak or average powers without either 

degrading some other performance parameter 

of interest, or causing severe damage 

to the fiber medium. However, the laser 

community is actively working on innovative 

fiber laser designs that, hopefully, will 

retain all of the key performance features 

listed in Table 1, while allowing power scaling 

by several orders of magnitude. 

Raytheon is pursuing a proprietary 

approach to accomplishing these objectives, 

and we anticipate significant new power 

capabilities in the next few years.

Near-term Raytheon applications of fiber 

lasers have been in various versions of laser 

sensors, including a state-of-the-art coherent 

laser radar system. In the commercial 

world, fiber lasers are becoming the laser of 

choice in a number of laser processing 

applications, most significantly in the marking 

area where they essentially dominate all 

other options. 

Planar Waveguide Lasers (PWGs), are 

high aspect ratio sandwich-type structures 

consisting of a high-index active core surrounded 

by lower index claddings. A PWG 

is essentially a one-dimensional fiber in 

which the thin transverse axis is guided and 

the wide transverse axis is unguided. The 

core, typically 5 to 200 μm thick, may be 

single-mode or multimode and may be 


Figure 2. Planar waveguide gain medium showing pump insertion and output beam 

James Mason 

Senior Principal Fellow 


When Jim Mason walked in the doors of Texas 

Instruments — later part of Raytheon — 42 years ago, 

he knew he found a home. 

Mason was given opportunities to work on challenging 

projects with the most advanced technologies; to work 

with brilliant and motivated people; to support the 

defense of our nation; and to get a paycheck on top of 

all of that. After 42 years, you can still see his excitement. 

“If you are excited about working with technology, 

Raytheon is a great place to work!” he declared. 

For the last 10 years Mason has worked on millimeter 

wave (MMW) active electronically scanned arrays 

(AESA) and MMW technology at Ka-band and W-band 

frequencies. As part of this effort, Mason invented and 

developed the low-cost MMW AESA concept. “This 

radically different and eloquently simple concept is a 

solution that is obvious to everybody,” Mason said, 

“once they see it.” The low-cost AESA concept reduced 

the per-channel cost by 10 times. This technology has 

now been applied to the multibillion dollar, multifunction 

RF System program. 

AESA design technology covers a broad range of technology 

disciplines, including RF, digital, power, monolithic 

microwave integrated circuits, software, thermal, 

materials and processes. The very high packaging densities 

of this equipment makes it a particularly difficult 

design challenge. Everything is interrelated and interconnected. 

“It reminds me of the PBS TV show called 

Feature 


Connections,” Mason said. “It takes a person with a 

broad experience base to span this technology breadth 

and provide the leadership to connect the dots.” 

The most rewarding aspect of his job, Mason said, is the 

challenge. “There’s a fortune cookie that says, ‘My greatest 

joy in life is accomplishing what others say is impossible.’ 

This is the challenge that I live for,” Mason said. 

“Leading a team of less experienced design engineers 

and showing them how to ask the right questions, 

makes it even more rewarding. You can see the excitement 

of the team build and we get closer and closer to a 

solution. When this magic moment occurs, the dynamics 

of the team are completely transformed.” 

Mason is a strong believer in visualization, and it’s one 

of the primary tools he uses when he invents something 

new. “It’s a powerful technique that can be applied to all 

aspects of a program, as well as your life. If you can see 

it you can make it happen. It takes practice and a lot of 

scientific background knowledge, but if you can develop 

this ability, you can change the world.” It helps, 

Mason said, to spend time with children. “Not only is it 

fun, but they will teach you how to think like a child. 

That’s what you need to be an inventor.” 

Reflecting on what aspect of his job keeps him up at 

night, Mason relates a “conversation” that he might have 

with his subconscious. “You know that problem that 

you asked me to work on several days ago? Well I’ve got 

the answer. Hope you are ready to get started, because 

I can’t sleep.” He commits many of his most difficult 

problems to his subconscious, and his mind, he said, 

“Let’s me know when it’s ready.” 


Feature Next-Generation Lasers 


core- or cladding-pumped. The guiding 

structure allows high pump absorption efficiency. 

The high aspect ratio offers a large 

surface-area-to-volume ratio for efficient 

cooling and a high power loading limit. 

With an aspect ratio of 100:1 or higher, a 

100kW-class PWG will require only 30 to 

40cm of length. The guided propagation of 

the signal beam in the thin core of a PWG 

cancels thermal lensing, permitting a wide 

operating power range with low optical 

distortion. The high intensity in a PWG 

(~1MW/cm 2 ) provides very efficient power 

extraction (fiber lasers run ~100MW/cm 2 ). 

If designed with a low numerical aperture, 

PWGs can provide very high gain with low 

amplified spontaneous emission. 

Raytheon has been the leader in laser 

amplifier power scaling, previously setting 

world records for the highest output power 

from a single rod, 2.6kW, and the highest 

output power from a single zigzag slab, 

8kW. The planar waveguide architecture is 

a natural evolution from zigzag slabs as the 

aspect ratio is increased. Advances in slab 

fabrication capability have enabled the creation 

of planar waveguides with aspect 

ratios of 100:1 and higher in the sizes 

required for weapon-class lasers. Raytheon 

presented data on a record-setting highpower 

Yb:YAG planar waveguide amplifier 

at SSDLTR 2006. This device demonstrated 

single-pass small signal gains up to 1,200 

(240W output with a 200mW input beam) 

and 16.1kW output power in a single-pass 

MOPA with G=160 (100W input beam). 

Electrical to optical efficiency at 16kW output 

power was 20 percent. The results were 

in excellent agreement with Raytheon’s 

laser kinetics models. Raytheon’s models 

predict no major technical obstacles to 

power scaling even up to the MW level. 

Slab fabrication capabilities currently support 

fabrication of 100kW-class PWG 

devices. Further power scaling will require 

additional slab fabrication process development. 

With its world-record demonstration, 

Raytheon has proven the applicability of the 

planar waveguide laser architecture for use 


Figure 3. 16kW planar waveguide MOPA configuration hardware under test 

in compact, efficient, weapon-class, 

solid-state lasers. 

Future Trends 

Emerging requirements for efficient, 

compact lasers that operate in the desirable 

1,500nm wavelength window (also referred 

to as “eye-safe” wavelength regime) have 

spawned efforts to develop lasers based on 

the resonantly pumped Er ion. In addition 

to operating in this desirable wavelength 

band, resonantly pumped Er lasers offer 

the potential of extremely high efficiency 

and — perhaps more importantly — low 

thermal waste heat generation due to the 

extremely small quantum defect made possible 

by the Er ion energy level energetics 

and dynamics (illustrated in Figure 4). 

2 F5/2 

Pump 

941 nm 

~9% Waste Heat 

2 F7/2 

Yb:YAG 

10902 

10624 cm 

10327 

-1 

Laser 

Transition 

1029 nm 

785 

612 

565 

0 

Figure 4. Energy level structure for Yb:YAG and Er:YAG 

cm-1 

Raytheon has demonstrated 57 percent 

slope efficiency in ErYAG (shown in Figure 

5) and others have recently achieved >81 

percent efficiencies from the same material. 

More recently, Raytheon has demonstrated 

ultra-low quantum defect operation 

(

Output Power [W] 

15 

10 

5 

0 

0 10 20 30 40 50 

Input Power [W] 

1645nm Er:YAG laser pumped at 1534nm 

CW Operation: 32% slope efficiency with 

respect to incident power (57% with 

respect to absorbed power) 

Figure 5. Resonantly pumped ErYAG laser 

results showing high efficiencies 

transmitter/system — especially when 

implemented in conjunction with the PWG 

gain architecture/geometry. 

Summary 

Advanced active EO systems will be 

critical to providing a competitive advantage 

to our forces for the foreseeable 

future. To maintain its position as a leading 

provider of these systems, Raytheon is 

actively maintaining a leadership position 

in the development of the next-generation 

lasers that power these active EO systems. 

Development of advanced laser architectures, 

such as fiber and planar waveguide 

lasers, along with advances in laser diode 

technology and gain medium materials, 

will fuel Raytheon’s growth in this expanding 

market segment. 

David Filgas 

dmfilgas@raytheon.com 

Co-authors: Dr. David Rockwell and 

Dr. Kalin Spariosu 

Prior to the discovery of the laser in 

1960, optical range measurements 

depended on the use of incoherent 

spark sources that suffered from large pulse 

widths and high-beam divergence. The 

laser’s narrow, high-energy pulses and highly 

collimated monochromatic beam made 

for an ideal source and revolutionized 

rangefinder accuracy and functionality. It 

was soon realized that these narrowlinewidth 

sources would make heterodyne 

detection possible in the infrared (IR) and 

optical spectral range. 

Laser radar (or ladar — laser detection and 

ranging) is an extension of conventional 

microwave radar techniques to much shorter 

wavelengths (by a factor of 100,000). 

Like microwave radar, ladar can simultaneously 

measure range, velocity, reflectivity, 

and azimuth and elevation angles. Ladar is 

well suited for precise measurements useful 

in target classification and recognition, but 

ill suited for wide-area search because of 

the time and energy required. 

Laser radars, with their optical wavelengths 

and active sensing, behave like forwardlooking 

infrared sensors in terms of angular 

resolution, and like microwave radars in 

terms of range and velocity measuring 

capability. However, coherent effects and 

extreme wavelength differences give rise 

to phenomena not seen in these more 

traditional sensors. 

For example, coherence of the laser transmitter 

causes speckle in the return from 

optically rough target surfaces. The apparent 

brightness of individual scene pixels 

may fluctuate wildly, giving visually poor 

intensity imagery unless considerable scene 

averaging is applied, which requires more 

time on target and more consumed energy. 

Often, ladar images are better displayed as 

range rather than intensity images. 

Feature 

Raytheon Achieves Advanced Radar 

Functionality at Optical Wavelengths 

via Coherent Ladar 

The extremely short wavelengths typical of 

ladars move the noise floors well into the 

quantum dominated regime. Thermal noise 

is the driving limit in sensitivity in radars, 

however, in ladars the quantized photon 

energy in the signal and background light 

drive the noise floor sensitivity. As the 

wavelengths approach visible light, the 

signal itself becomes noise-like and the 

detection threshold becomes roughly one 

photon. In addition, the short wavelengths 

give rise to huge Doppler shifts that may 

require processing bandwidths far greater 

than needed in conventional radar. 

Coherent Ladar Capabilities at Raytheon 

Coherent ladar became viable in the early 

1980s with the development of frequency 

stable CO2 laser transmitters. Raytheon 

(then Hughes Aircraft) was in the forefront 

of the technology development, flying the 

first frequency modulated (FM) ladars in 

1981–86. Radar waveforms such as Linear 

FM Chirps were used. In the late 1980s, 

diode-pumped solid-state lasers replaced 

the CO2 gas lasers as the preferred transmitters 

for ladar, due to their simpler and 

more robust designs. 

Inverse Synthetic Aperture Ladar 

During the mid-1990s, Raytheon developed 

and demonstrated one of the first flyable 

coherent ladar systems to measure space 

object microdynamics for discrimination 

between precision decoys and RVs for the 

Exo-atmospheric Kill Vehicle (EKV). The 

Advanced Discriminating Ladar Transceiver 

(ADLT) sensor used a short wavelength, 

coherent mode-locked, solid-state transceiver 

and inverse synthetic aperture ladar processing 

to provide range-resolved Doppler 

imagery of the target. The laser transmitter 

used a fiber-optic laser waveform generator, 

which produced the coherent, high-bandwidth 

waveform and amplified this signal 

within a multi-stage diode-pumped, solid-state 



Feature 


amplifier with extremely high efficiency and 

high gain. The challenges that were overcome 

during the demonstration phase of 

the ADLT program included development of 

a fiber-based waveform generator, widebandwidth 

signal processing (~1 GHz), and 

a high laser amplifier gain (~3,000) requiring 

a new laser material (Nd:YVO 4 ). The 

success of the ADLT demonstration proved 

that coherent ladar has a much higher payoff 

than simpler direct detection systems, by 

allowing a multitude of waveforms to 

extract subtle discriminating target features. 

Synthetic Aperture Ladar 

In January 2003, Raytheon was awarded 

DARPA’s Synthetic Aperture Ladar for 

Tactical Imaging (SALTI) Program. The program 

culminated on Feb. 17, 2006, with 

production of the world’s first synthetic 

aperture ladar image from an airborne platform. 

This success dramatically advanced 

state-of-the-art ladar research by transitioning 

ladar technology from the lab to actual 

flight demonstrations. 

SALTI is an imaging synthetic aperture ladar 

that operates at optical wavelengths. 

Traditional radar components, such as 

exciters, antennas and waveguides, have all 

been replaced by their optical equivalents: 


lenses, mirrors, and beam splitters to enable 

control of optical waveforms. Optical ladars 

exploit platform motion to synthesize a synthetic 

aperture in exactly the same manner as 

RF radars; significant differences include dwelltime 

and beam-footprint on the ground. 

The result is a narrow field-of-view imaging 

sensor capable of producing ultra-high resolution 

2-D and 3-D images of the target. 

SALTI’s success is built on several years of 

intense work overcoming many difficult 

problems confronting optical ladars: atmospherics, 

vibration and motion compensation, 

Doppler processing and laser phase 

noise. The random nature of the atmosphere 

introduces phase-noise into signals, 

resulting in degraded pulse compression. 

Slow-time image compression requires 

Doppler knowledge beyond that obtainable 

via inertial navigation systems and intertial 

measurement unit instrumentation; new 

motion compensation techniques had to be 

invented. Modern radars employ state-of-theart, 

sub-Hz clock oscillators. In comparison, 

the best 1.55 μm laser sources have kHz-level 

linewidths — again, new solutions had to 

be invented to surmount these problems. 

After flying 30-plus successful missions over 

land and water, SALTI has demonstrated the 

imaging capabilities achievable through 

optical SAR. In conjunction with modern 

Vibration Ladar Sensor maps ground vibration response to detect buried objects. 

Coherent Ladar 

radars, optical SAR offers very powerful 

capabilities to augment persistent track and 

assured ID mission requirements. With the 

upcoming SALTI Phase IV & V programs, 


(SAS) is preparing to transition the SALTI 

technology toward a deliverable long-range 

sensor system for our customers. 

Vibration Ladar 

Using the ladar technology base developed 

under the SALTI imaging ladar program, 

Raytheon SAS has embarked into the vibrometric 

sensor market. 

Our goal is to develop an instrument capable 

of watching the surface of the Earth 

vibrate, similar to high-speed photography 

of a drum head, or the resultant waves of a 

water drop rippling across the surface of a 

mill pond. Specialized signal processing will 

enable the warfighter to isolate and detect 

vibrations from objects buried in the Earth. 

Vibrometric sensing contains a number of 

unique and interesting scientific challenges 

to overcome. First and foremost is the issue 

of platform motion: How can signal processing 

detect faint vibrations on the 

ground’s surface while driving over a rocky, 

gravel road that induces massive random 

vibrations into the gimbaled optical sensor? 

Raytheon researchers working on SALTI had 

begun to investigate this question, focusing 

on the goal of augmenting SALTI’s already 

impressive imaging capabilities with vibrometry. 

Our research team designed and built 

a table-top laser Doppler vibrometer and 

began testing platform motion detection 

and compensation algorithms. A successful 

Independent Research and Development 

(IR&D) project in fiscal year 2007 led to 

patentable intellectual property and patent 

applications are underway. 

Ongoing and Future IR&D Efforts: 

Receivers 

Raytheon SAS ladar researchers quickly realized 

that ladar sensors generate raw data 

streams comparable to modern active electronically 

scanned array radars. Consequently, 

ladar and radar architects and signal processing 

specialists collaborated, resulting in a

significant transfer of knowledge. Specifics 

include radar pulse compression, phase compensation 

(“pre-warp”), Hilbert transforms, 

and Chirp-Z transforms, just to name a few. 

Doppler centroiding is one of the most serious 

issues confronting ladars operating in 

the near-infrared eyesafe wavelength band 

(1.55 μm). This effect arises from the 

Doppler relationship between platform 

velocity and optical wavelength. Thus, 

ladars demand very stringent timing 

requirements between wideband sensor 

data and narrowband line-of-sight (LOS) 

servo-control mechanisms. Traditional 

passive IR LOS mechanisms think in two 

dimensions, known as angle–angle space. 

In comparison, ladar LOS mechanisms must 


think in three dimensions: angle–angle and 

range. As a result, ladar receivers are evolving 

rapidly, incorporating commonly used 

real-time radar processing techniques, 

including in-phase and quadrature processing, 

digital filtering and decimation. 

These demands have led to the concept of 

a fully integrated ladar LOS servo controller, 

exciter and receiver, which is similar in concept 

to active electronically scanned array 

(AESA) radars but with appropriate modifications 

for ladar. Currently, ladar and radar 

technologists across Raytheon are sharing 

information on architectures, wideband 

data formats, data transmission and data 

storage techniques. As ladar receivers 

continue to evolve and incorporate radar 

Jéan-Paul Bulot 

Principal Multi-Disciplined Engineer 


Jéan-Paul Bulot is an architect and research scientist 

working on several coherent ladar programs led by 

Space and Airborne Systems’ Advanced Concepts and 

Technology: SALTI, SAVi and NSEP. He is also the principal 

investigator and a part-time member of multiple 

internal research and development teams working on 

ultra-high bandwidth coherent waveforms, advanced 

ladar speckle noise reduction techniques, laser doppler 

vibrometry and vibrometric algorithms. 

“My job is to stretch the boundary of what’s possible, to 

illuminate the path of new scientific discoveries 

enabling my customer goals,” according to Bulot. 

Bulot believes his drive to become an engineer began 

early. “There’s this famous family photo of me spinning 

a soup can at the age of three,” he recalled. “By sixteen I 

knew I was going to be an engineer of some sort.” 

His career at Raytheon began in 2000, when Maurice 

Halmos, senior ladar scientist, and Lou Klaras, senior 

laser electronics engineer, were looking for creative 

minds to tackle difficult multi-disciplinary problems in 

ladar. A good friend and fellow Georgia Tech engineer 

already working at Raytheon sent Bulot’s resume to 

Klaras and, according to Bulot, “It’s been a nonstop 

rollercoaster ever since.” 

Bulot cites many reasons for the success he has found in 

his career. “I grew up without TV in a family that 

encouraged independence, creativity, self-reliance and 

Feature 

technology lessons learned, Raytheon SAS 

is well positioned to provide this blending 

of RF and photonics technologies into an 

integrated active sensor system capable of 

significant stand-off ranges with remarkable 

synthetic aperture image clarity. The 

enhanced sensing capability afforded by 

Raytheon’s coherent ladar systems will allow 

the sensing platforms to perform their 

critical target detection, identification and 

handoff missions while remaining out of 

harm’s way. 

Dr. Maurice J Halmos 

mjhalmos@raytheon.com 

Co-authors: Jean-Paul Bulot and 

Dr. Matthew J. Klotz 

the idea of being able to self-educate,” he said. “I am 

particularly grateful that my parents instilled the idea 

that there is always positive learning to be discovered, 

even in failures.” 

“My engineering is akin to my big-wave surfing: I seek 

the path of balance in a rapidly and dynamically changing 

environment. Failure is my friend and feedback 

mechanism that tells me if my intuition is correct. I 

trust my team — I champion their successes. Where I 

perceive shortcomings, I lend a hand, and if I don’t 

know the answer I find someone who does.” 

This collaborative approach is seen in Bulot’s commitment 

to teaching and mentoring junior engineers, a 

commitment he sees as mutually beneficial. “Explaining 

an idea empowers the student to grow in skill and 

progress forward in life and career, while offering the 

teacher a fresh viewpoint and opportunity to further 

probe and improve the true understanding of how 

something works.” 

His work at Raytheon allows Bulot to continually learn 

and grow by interacting with a diverse group of 

employees committed to success. “I enjoy working with 

individuals who exhibit excellence in all manner of 

their professional and personal lives; it’s fascinating and 

inspiring to have the opportunity to discuss a broad 

spectrum of ideas and I appreciate differing points of 

view. I believe life offers the opportunity to be both a 

student and a teacher everyday; as the famous woodworker 

George Nakashima once said, ‘work can be a 

form of yoga for the mind.’” 


Feature 

Radio Frequency Sensors 

Small, Low-Power Radars Satisfy Big Needs 

When we think of Raytheon and radars, we usually think of large missile defense radars like the Sea-Based X-band Radar, early 

warning radars like the PAVE PAWS, or fighter aircraft radars for the U.S. Navy’s F/A-18. However, the advancement of solidstate 

radio frequency (RF) active circuit technology and packaging during the past several years has enabled the proliferation of 

more affordable active phased array antennas to many more applications. In this issue you will read about small radars used to protect military 

aircraft and their crew from intruders after they land in remote areas, and an exciting new system on the horizon with the potential to 

provide significantly improved warning for severe weather on a very local scale. 

When one thinks of RF and networks, it is usually in the context of communications. Radars, however, may also be used in networks so 

that they operate autonomously or together to do their job. Think of having the ability to simultaneously view a football game from several 

angles, much like what happens inside the control-room truck of a television crew covering the event. The director has the complex task 

of scanning the various camera options as the play unfolds and deciding which camera to select for what gets aired. A network of radars 

essentially operates similarly. Each radar may observe, from different vantage points, the same phenomena, and when the information is 

re-constructed and processed we see a lot of details about what we are observing. In the medical world, CT scans (computed tomography) 

work similarly, using X-rays to form a 3-D image of the body. In this case, we use RF and the antennas are fixed while the weather is moving; 

whereas, in CT scans, we are stationary while the X-ray machine moves (well sort of, we actually move as well, so that many slices 

may be taken as the X-ray machine moves around us in a circle). This technique allows us to observe more details of the weather as it 

develops and ultimately improve accuracy and warning times for severe weather such as tornadoes. 

Landing military aircraft in areas of the world where our soldiers are in harm’s way is very dangerous to the soldiers and the aircraft and its 

contents. A new system has been devised using millimeter wave radars that allow our warfighters to deploy sensors around the perimeter 

of the aircraft to provide warning against intruders. This frees up the soldiers to perform tasks relevant to the aircraft’s contents, and it 

requires less manpower for standing watch. 

Mike Sarcione 

michael_g_sarcione@raytheon.com 

16 2008 ISSUE 1 RAYTHEON TECHNOLOGY TODAY

Feature 

Active Panel Array Technology 

Enables Affordable Weather Radar 

Today’s weather forecasting and 

warning infrastructure uses data 

from high-power radars that have 

helped meteorologists improve forecasts 

significantly in the past 20-plus years. 

Despite having substantial capability to 

measure wind and rainfall and to diagnose 

storms, these long-range radars have limited 

ability to observe the lowest and most 

critical part of the atmosphere owing to the 

Earth’s curvature. This prevents the radars 

from observing the behavior of tornadoes 

and other hazards at or near ground level. 

As a result, one in five tornadoes goes 

undetected by current technology, and 

80 percent of all tornado warnings turn 

out to be false alarms. 

Raytheon Integrated Defense Systems (IDS), 

in partnership with a team of academic 1 , 

government and industrial collaborators, 

has formed a National Science Foundation 

Engineering Research Center (ERC) called 

the Center for Collaborative Adaptive 

Sensing of the Atmosphere (CASA) to 

address this problem. CASA is researching 

a new weather hazard forecasting and 

warning technology based on low-cost, 

dense networks of radars that operate at 

short range, communicate with one 

another, and adjust their sensing strategies 

in direct response to the evolving weather 

and to changing end-user needs. In contrast 

to today’s large weather radars with 

10-meter-diameter antennas, the antennas 

in CASA networks are expected to be onemeter 

in diameter with electronics that are 

about the size of a personal computer. This 

small size allows these radars to be placed 

on existing cellular towers and rooftops, 

enabling them to comprehensively map 

damaging winds and heavy rainfall from 

the top of storms down to the critical 

boundary layer region beneath the view 

of current technology. 

This approach can achieve breakthrough 

improvements in resolution and update 

Figure 1. CASA test network data 

times, leading to significant reductions in 

tornado false alarms; quantitative precipitation 

estimation for more accurate flood 

prediction; fine-scale wind field imaging; 

and the estimation of thermodynamic state 

variables for use in short-term numerical 

forecasting and other applications such as 

airborne hazard dispersion forecasting. In 

addition to the radars and their associated 

hardware and data communication infrastructure, 

a new generation of meteorological 

software is being developed to target 

the resources in these radars in order to 

simultaneously support emergency managers 

and government and private industry 

organizations that need weather data for 

making critical decisions. 

Field tests reveal that this technology offers 

observing capabilities fundamentally 

beyond today’s state of the art. The background 

image in Figure 1 shows a thunderstorm 

observed using a 4-radar test network 

deployed in “Tornado Alley.” At 500-meter 

spatial resolution, the system is capable of 

resolving critical substructure within the 

storm cell that cannot be resolved with the 

coarser resolution, more distant WSR-88D 

radars deployed operationally today. 

At a typical spacing of 30 km, 10,000 of 

these radars would be required to blanket 

the contiguous United States. Such radars 

would require only 10’s of W of average 

transmitter power, yet they would be capable 

of fine-scale storm mapping throughout 

the entire troposphere — from the critical 

low troposphere “gap” region below 3 km, 

up to the tops of storms. Such networks 

thus have the potential to supplement — or 

perhaps replace — the large networks in 

use today. 

Blanket deployment of thousands of small 

radar nodes across an entire nation is but 

one of several possible future deployment 

strategies for this technology. Additional 

strategies would include selective deployment 

of smaller networks in heavy population 

areas, geographic regions particularly 

prone to wind hazards or flash floods, 

valleys within mountainous regions, or 

specific regions where it is particularly 

important to improve observation of lowlevel 

meteorological phenomena. Cost, 

maintenance and reliability issues, as well 

as aesthetics, motivate the use of small 

(approximately 1-meter diameter, 2-degree 

beamwidth) antennas that could be 

installed on either low-cost towers or 

existing infrastructure elements (such as 

rooftops or cellular communication towers). 

The cost to deploy and operate such 

a network will include the upfront cost of 

the radars and their associated communication 

and computation infrastructure, along 

with the recurring costs to maintain the 

systems; buy or rent land and space on 

towers/rooftops; and provide for data 

communication between the radars, 

operations and control centers, and users. 

These costs, in addition to numerous 

technological and system-level tradeoffs, 

need to be balanced to ultimately develop 

an effective system design. 

Phased arrays are a key enabling technology 

in many production radars today and a 

desirable technology for use in dense 

networks since they do not require 



Feature 


maintenance of moving parts and they 

permit flexibility in beam steering. A particular 

challenge in realizing cost-effective 

dense networks composed of thousands of 

radars will be to achieve a design that can 

be volume-manufactured for approximately 

$10,000 per array (current dollars). Several 

thousand transmit/receive (T/R) channels are 

needed to realize a phased array capable of 

electronically steering a 2-degree beam in 

two dimensions over the desired scan range 

of these radars. The realization of such an 

antenna will benefit from leveraging commodity 

silicon RF semiconductors to achieve 

T/R functions, in combination with very 

low-cost packaging, fabrication and 

assembly techniques. Below, we describe a 

promising architecture and prototype of a 

phased array that can be manufactured 

using processes similar to those for making 

low-cost computer boards. 

System Performance/Cost Objective and 

Active Panel Array Approach 

The air-cooled panel array is the “building 

block” for a larger, active phased array. The 

strategy for reducing cost is based on the 

following four objectives: 

1. Significant reduction in printed wiring 

board (PWB) fabrication and assembly 

process steps 

Fabrication: One image and etch, one 

lamination, one drill and plate 

Assembly: One solder reflow operation 

to attach all components 

2. Significant reduction in components 

Surface mount “flip-chip” MMICs and 

components 

Modular: Highly integrated RF, DC and 

logic PWB manifold 

Environmental coatings/protection 

tailored to application 

3. Reliance on established technology 

Incorporation of mature and advanced 

technologies as required 

Low-power designs (

Slot Coupling to Radiator: A slot coupled 

feed to stacked patches simplifies PWB 

fabrication while providing excellent RF 

performance. 

Beamformer Circuits: Untrimmed ink 

resistors are used because of lower 

fabrication cost. The tolerance of the 

ink resistor has been incorporated into 

the design. 

DC. High-current power plane is located 

on the layer directly below the surface 

mount MMIC layer. 

Logic. Logic lines are routed between 

each unit cell’s RF isolation cage. 

Modeled dual-linear polarized performance, 

including a radome, is summarized: 

VSWR < 2:1 for maximum scan 

angle of 65 degrees 

Ohmic loss < 1dB 

Minimum/Maximum cross-polarization: 

-29dB/ -11dB 

Progress 

A prototype active T/R channel panel array, 

the building block for a 1m2 weather radar, 


Amplitude (dB) 

-5 

-10 

-15 

-20 

-25 

-30 

-35 

-40 

-60 -50 -40 -30 -20 -10 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 

Azimuth (deg) 

was assembled with “flip-chip” MMICs and 

tested. Figure 4 shows active receive, linearhorizontal 

polarized patterns of the T/R 

channel panel array at 9.5GHz; the dotted 

line is cross-polarization. 

Future Plans 

In 2008, Raytheon will assemble a panel 

array. It will be integrated and tested with a 

DC/DC converter panel (using COTS converters) 

and a receiver-exciter (REX) panel 

Angelo Puzella 

Program Manager, Low-Cost Active Arrays 

Raytheon Integrated Defense Systems 

0 

Hcut 

Hcut 

Advanced Technology Program Manager Angelo Puzella 

believes it’s important for engineers to think outside the 

numbers, facts and figures that are central to their jobs. 

By doing this, he said, they can spark their creativity. “If 

you’re looking around you at other things, you might see 

something that triggers an idea,” he said. 

Puzella himself has found many opportunities to apply 

this approach to his own 25-year Raytheon career. An 

annual visitor to Italy (his wife is from Milan), Puzella 

has acquired an appreciation for classical architecture 

among the Roman ruins and renaissance architecture 

of Florence. From looking at temples, amphitheaters, 

aqueducts and churches, he said, you can see the 

underlying building block: the simple arch. “This 

common engineering building block served to raise 

huge vaulted domes and span great ravines, built civic 

and religious institutions, and provided the necessary 

infrastructure for ancient civilizations.” 

Amplitude (dB) 

0 

-5 

-10 

-15 

-20 

-25 

-30 

-35 

Vcut 

Vcut 

Figure 4. 128 T/R channel panel array: active component side 

Feature 

-40 

-60 -50 -40 -30 -20 -10 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 

Elevation (deg) 

(also using COTS components) in the 

prototype 1m 2 array frame with radome. 

The first fully populated 1m 2 weather radar 

will be field-tested in 2009. 

Angelo Puzella 

angelo_puzella@raytheon.com 

Co-author: David J. McLaughlin 

1 The core academic partners of the CASA team are the University 

of Massachusetts Amherst (lead university), University of 

Oklahoma, Colorado State University, and University of Puerto 

Rico at Mayaguez. 

As part of IDS’ Advanced Technology, Puzella has carried 

the idea of a common building block to active phased 

arrays: a panel array composed of the same materials; 

fabricated and assembled in the same fashion; and used 

to assemble a larger, active phased array for various 

applications. The active panel array is similar to a computer 

board and the key is to leverage commercial manufacturing 

to incorporate mature or advanced semiconductor 

technologies as needed. The potential applications 

for panel arrays range from weather radars to battlefield 

radars and terrestrial and satellite communications. 

“The ultimate goal for panel array technology,” Puzella 

said, “would to be as ubiquitous and useful as the arch 

has been throughout the past 2,000 years.” 

To achieve this, Puzella believes, it’s important to take 

risks. “The commercial world is full of examples of people 

taking risks, of using trial and error and inspiration. 

If you can push something forward like this panel, other 

applications come up for it.” 


Feature 

Adaptive Land 

Enhanced Raytheon 

Radar Technology 

“Small radar” provides big protection 

AC-17 Globemaster III lands on a 

remote airfield under the cover of 

darkness. Forward-deployed 

warfighters emerge and quickly perform 

their mission. One of the warfighters opens 

a case that contains tripods, batteries, sensors 

and communication equipment. Within 

minutes, a secured zone of protection is 

established around the entire aircraft, 

extending at least 100 meters from each 

sensor head. Throughout the night, the 

warfighters perform their duties with the 

confidence that no one will approach their 

aircraft undetected. 

Raytheon Integrated Defense Systems (IDS) 

has made this concept a reality. A perimeter 

security system for aircraft protection has 

already been field-tested by the U.S. Air 

Force, and Raytheon continues to make 

enhancements to have the system ready with 

the most current and advanced technology. 

The sensor used for the aircraft protection 

concept is a millimeter-wave multi-beam 

radar that has been internally developed by 

IDS Engineering’s Advanced Technology 

group. Known as an Adaptive Land 

Enhanced Raytheon Radar Technology 

(ALERRT) sensor, it can be configured to 

operate in multiple perimeter security 

scenarios that require portable or fixed 

asset protection. 

An ALERRT sensor weighs a mere two 

pounds, is the size of a paperback book, 

and is battery-powered. It can be mounted 

on tripods, fences and buildings. Designed 

for low-power consumption, an ALERRT 

sensor is ideal for missions where line 

power may not be available for an extended 

period of time. An ALERRT sensor can be 

used in a wired or wireless configuration, 


with the detection of vehicle 

or personnel presence 

transmitted to a display unit. 

For large, multiple, or irregularly 

shaped assets, the ALERRT sensors 

can be networked to provide expanded 

zones of protection. Each sensor provides a 

detection range of 100 meters and at least 

100 degrees of coverage. 

The fielded system mentioned earlier in 

this article is the Aircraft Self-Protection 

Security System (ASPSS) developed for the 

Electronic Systems Center, Hanscom Air 

Force Base, Bedford, Mass. Using four 

ALERRT sensors, along with wireless 

communication equipment and a handheld 

user display, the Air Force is able to provide 

complete 360-degree coverage of a single 

An ALERRT sensor is easily mountable on 

tripods, fences and buildings. 

An ALERRT sensor weighs about 2 pounds. 

aircraft. Using the handheld user display, 

the aircraft security personnel can configure 

the system and with a quick glance monitor 

the secured zone of protection. 

Additional ALERRT sensors increase coverage 

and enable protection of multiple aircraft 

parked together. Given the large dimensions 

of many military transport aircraft, it is 

crucial to have 360-degree coverage during 

nighttime and adverse weather conditions. 

The ALERRT sensors used in the ASPSS 

give aircraft security personnel low-cost 

detection capabilities in various environmental 

conditions. This is accomplished 

without the use of additional personnel, 

artificial lighting or other technologies. 

The ALERRT sensor can be adapted beyond 

military perimeter security for other applications, 

such as FAA runway incursion detection 

and cleared-zone facility security for 

important assets like sensitive communications 

components or ammunition depots. 

In addition, the ALERRT sensor can be 

integrated with other sensor technologies 

to form a layered defense in more complex 

protection scenarios. 

The mission of Raytheon IDS is to provide 

warfighters with the most reliable and 

affordable protection of persons and property. 

And this is exactly the value that the 

ALERRT sensor adds when integrated into 

the highly portable, low-power perimeter 

security system. 

David Hall 

david_l_hall@raytheon.com

LEADERS CORNER 

Greg Alston 

Vice President, 

Mission Assurance 

Recently, Technology Today sat down 

with Greg Alston, Raytheon vice 

president of Mission Assurance. 

Alston joined the company last June, 

after more than 30 years with the U.S. Air 

Force, where he most recently served as 

a civilian senior executive in the role of 

deputy chief of safety and executive 

director of the Air Force Safety Center. 

He was also a command pilot with more 

than 2,000 flying hours in the F-4, F-16, 

AT-38 and F-117A. 

Alston discussed how he is leveraging 

his Air Force safety experience to develop 

an integrated enterprise Mission Assurance 

vision and strategy at Raytheon, the importance 

of organizational assurance, and 

what Mission Assurance means to him. 

TT: There seems to be several definitions 

for Mission Assurance. Do you have a 

standard one? 

GA: That’s a challenge because there really 

isn’t a standard definition. I’m currently 

working on a dissertation titled 

“Comprehensive Mission Assurance” and 

interestingly, there’s not a lot of research 

on the subject. They don’t know how to 

package and define it. 

TT: Why is it so hard to define? 

GA: First of all, you need to determine 

what mission you are assuring. And, you 

can’t just assure one mission. For instance, 

at Raytheon we have several missions, 

starting with customer success. To support 

customer success, we also need to assure 

our corporate success, production success 

and organizational success. These are all 

interrelated, and they build and count on 

each other. 

TT: Then what are some of the leading 

definitions of Mission Assurance? 

GA: From research, a common theme is 

“the belief, or conviction, that mission 

objectives will be satisfactorily achieved.” 

There is also the definition of Christopher 

Alberts and Audrey Dorofee in their report 

Mission Assurance Analysis Protocol which 

describes it as “establishing a reasonable 

degree of confidence in mission success.” 

Even at Raytheon, the businesses have 

slightly different definitions. The closest we 

come to a common definition is “the discipline 

to manage inherent risk and to allocate 

resources to ensure mission success in 

collaboration with our customers and suppliers.” 

This is a risk-based definition, 

which I believe is an essential foundation. 

TT: Why is risk important? 

GA: All action bears risk. We need risk for 

successful action and mission success. If 

we have too little risk, that equates to 

inadequate action, and we fail in absolute 

mission success. At the other extreme, too 

much risk results in strained resources, and 

we again fail to achieve mission success. 

The right amount of measured, controlled 

risk is what drives mission success. 

In the end, we need to look at risk as a 

resource. It’s a resource like a medicine. 

You need medicine to stay alive, but if you 

take too much, it can kill you. If you don’t 

get enough, it can kill you. If you have the 

right amount, you stay alive and you’re 

healthy. So risk is like that, you can’t live 

without it. By definition it’s one of our 

resources we have to have. We have to coexist 

with risk. 

TT: Will risk be one of the things you’re 

focusing on in 2008? 

GA: This year we are looking at better 

integrating Mission Assurance across the 

enterprise, and a big part of that is looking 

at organizational risk through a concept 

called organizational assurance, which 

helps identify normalizations of deviance. 

TT: Normalizations of deviance? 

GA: Yes, it’s a strange phrase, used by 

Diane Vaughan in her book, The 

Challenger Launch Decision. What it refers 

to is when you deviate from a good standard, 

you allow substandard performance. 

You may have the best processes, but if 

you accept substandard performance, this 

can lead to undue risk. What it means is 

this: What you tolerate today becomes 

normalized tomorrow. 

There are famous cases where the cause of 

a crash or disaster wasn’t because of poor 

processes or individual performance, but 

because the organizations failed as a 

whole. Things like scheduling pressures 

caused managers to deviate from a good 

standard, and say launch when they otherwise 

would not have. It’s about the discipline 

to do the right thing. In some cases people 

were breaking the rules and the leaders 

were allowing it to happen. So in these 

cases you had leadership problems and 

you had discipline problems that presented 

organizational risks that led to mission failures. 

Normalizations of deviance are often seen 

when cutting corners, especially when it is 

allowed by management. If a programmer 



LEADERS CORNER 


says, “I’ve got to meet this deadline,” and 

doesn’t follow a rule, to me, that has introduced 

an unnecessary risk. The schedule 

has taken precedence over delivering a 

good, sound product. So in such a case you 

start with a quality problem and it just 

snowballs. Often, because of cutting corners, 

the product isn’t quite right, and then 

you have to rework it. Costs start going up. 

Delays happen. So in this example, the 

programmer tried to get it out the door 

quickly by cutting corners at the risk of 

quality and risked an unhappy customer. 

Leaders and managers need to hold people 

accountable for knowingly breaking a rule 

or not doing the right things. If they don’t, 

others will see that poor behavior is tolerated, 

and a normalization of deviance will 

exist throughout the community. 

TT: How do you eliminate normalizations of 

deviance and organizational risks? 

GA: It starts with core values, and how well 

they are embraced. Raytheon is fortunate to 

have wonderful core values. They are fundamentally 

what we need for Mission 

Assurance. It begins by treating people with 

dignity and respect, and taking care of their 

needs. Integrity is also key. If we don’t have 

that we don’t have anything. 

Of course, no organization is perfect because 

they are made up of us, people. People are 

fallible. It’s the human factor. You can’t 

change that. You can only change the conditions 

in which we work. That's what organizational 

assurance is all about: people — 

human factors — and a healthy organization 

that demonstrates top performance. 

Typically, avoiding normalizations of 

deviance is as simple as practicing core values 

and holding others accountable to them. It is 

focusing on organizational health, and identifying 

what’s tolerated by leadership. 

It starts with the individual. If your job is to 

torque a bolt and you over torque it, and 

your supervisor knows that you’ve done it 

three times that day, you might think: “I'm 

not going to tell anybody.” The part may 

fail when the customer uses the product. 

That person has to know that he or she 

needs to speak up, always. My motto is 

never walk past a problem. 


This is the next level of Mission 

Assurance — making sure the organization 

is healthy. Leadership is responsible for making 

sure that the organization works. If the 

organization is healthy, the processes will be 

shaped, focused, agreed upon and will 

work to make quality products. If the 

organization is not healthy — that is, has 

undue organizational risks — processes may 

not work, and this may lead to mission failure. 

A healthy organization has positive 

dynamics like strong teamwork and communication, 

and good leadership. It has 

the discipline to follow the good standards 

that have been set. 

TT: So what actions can you take or tools 

can you use to improve organizational 

assurance? 

GA: There are three tools we are looking to 

develop in partnership with the businesses. 

One will be about mission risk assessment 

or organizational risk assessment, and is 

called an organizational assurance assessment. 

It’s where a psychologist leads a team 

through a series of careful processes and 

methodologies to find breakdowns within 

an organization that are leading to mission 

failure. He or she will take a week to go in 

and dig down into an organization, conduct 

interviews and do the analysis. Follow-on 

normally takes about two weeks. It’s a little 

intrusive, but it works and the process has 

been adopted by some of our customers. 

The second tool is a risk assessment and 

mitigation process — or RAMP tool. It identifies 

hazards in any aspect of an organization. 

It then breaks out associated risks and 

quantifies them, and rank orders them. It 

can answer questions like, what’s the 

biggest risk to your organization? And then 

it quantifies the risk mitigation. So we can 

tell a business leader that “17 percent of all 

your risk is this, or that, 6 percent is in this 

or that area, etc.” and here's the mitigation 

strategy — quantified of course. It can tell a 

leader the best mitigation strategies he or 

she can implement with considerations of 

cost, time, mission impact, organizational 

impact and available technology. We can 

tell leaders that if they apply a particular 

mitigation strategy, they will reduce their 

risk by such and such percent. And if they 

do “x” strategy, it will also have a positive 

effect on “y” and “z” hazards, so they get 

Q&A With Greg Alston 

more bang for the buck, and the strategy is 

quantified by percentage of possible overall 

risk reduction. 

The third tool is what we’re going to call 

RMAT — Raytheon Mission Assurance Tool. 

It’s a very non-intrusive tool, a 15-minute 

online survey. The theory here is to canvass 

all of Raytheon. It will point out which 

organizations have a problem in different 

areas where Mission Assurance may be 

affected, and will red-flag them. It’ll be a 

quick and easy way for us to identify where 

there’s a problem, and we can address our 

time and resources on that precise area. We 

still need to develop the exact questions, 

and we will be tapping people from all the 

businesses to help craft them. 

TT: How else are you partnering with 

the businesses? 

GA: Again, one of our focus areas for 2008 

is to better integrate Mission Assurance 

across the enterprise. However, our businesses 

are all unique and have 

different needs. We have organizations that 

focus on a range of products and 

systems, like software, hardware, radar and 

missiles. All these different organizations 

have different requirements, different 

processes. So tailored Mission Assurance for 

each business is going to be important. 

There can’t be a one-size-fits-all Mission 

Assurance. 

This year we are looking at what we already 

do at Raytheon to build good teamwork, 

develop leaders, assess our organizations, 

etc. We will look at new tools we can bring 

into play, and at ensuring we don’t duplicate 

anything. We will look at what 

processes are good, which ones aren’t, and 

which need to be modified. These assessments 

and determinations are probably different 

for each business. 

In general, the businesses have built a 

strong process-focused foundation for 

Mission Assurance. However, the process 

alone cannot deliver the product. As I’ve 

said, it takes a good, healthy organization. 

We may end up with a tailored approach to 

Mission Assurance at Raytheon, but there 

are some fundamental things that we can 

all embrace that are standard.

Certain processes are sacred and must be followed. 

We all really need to strive for organizational 

health. We need to make sure to 

embrace our core values. We need to keep 

an eye out for normalizations of deviance. 

The tools we are developing will give the 

businesses the critical means to look into 

their organizations to monitor these things. 

TT: Will you be forming a Mission Assurance 

Council with the businesses? 

GA: For now, we’ve started by creating a 

Raytheon Mission Assurance Action Group or 

RMAAG. I’ve engaged the businesses and 

they’ve embraced it. The RMAAG includes 

Mission Assurance people from the businesses 

in a forum that allows us to get together 

and talk about the issues. We can look for 

things we can share that some businesses 

are already doing, and that others are not 

doing, but should be. We can talk things 

over and get some clarity on just how different 

each one should be, and understand 

what the commonalities are, share best practices, 

and maybe get rid of processes we 

don’t need. We can work as a group. That 

would be a prelude to a possible Mission 

Assurance Council. 

TT: You joined Raytheon from the customer 

community. How would you rate us at 

Mission Assurance compared to our peers? 

GA: I think that we do Mission Assurance 

very well. I see us as world class. However, I 

see our competitors doing well in this area, 

too. My goal is to be a world apart, and 

leave those guys behind. 

TT: You’ve been a warfighter. What does 

Raytheon’s commitment to Mission 

Assurance mean to you personally? 

GA: “No doubt” is important to me. 

My son-in-law is an F-22 pilot. Whatever we 

put on his airplane is important to 

my daughter and my grandkids. At the end 

of the day it’s really about two 

things: winning the engagement, and assuring 

the lives of our warfighters. Imagine 

being a warfighter in the fray. There is 

already high risk all around 

him or her. The last thing he or she 

needs to think or worry about is whether or 

not the equipment is going to work 

the way we, Raytheon, promised. It’s got to 

work, all the time. 

Supporting Math and Science Education 

When you help a student master the Pythagorean theorem, 

you could be supporting a future engineer who will master 

nanotechnology. That’s why Raytheon created MathMovesUTM , a national initiative 

designed to show middle school students that they can master math, and that it will 

take them to lots of cool places. Raytheon is also proud to support MATHCOUNTS ® , 

which motivates more than 500,000 middle school students to sharpen their math 

skills each year. By working to improve our children’s proficiency in math and science 

today, we’re giving them what they need to improve our world tomorrow. 

www.MathMovesU.com 

© 2008 Raytheon Company. All rights reserved. 

“Customer Success Is Our Mission” is a registered trademark of Raytheon Company. 

MathMovesU is a trademark of Raytheon Company. 

MATHCOUNTS is a registered trademark of the MATHCOUNTS Foundation. 


onTechnology 

NCOIC NCAT: Analyzing Network-Centricity 

to Enhance Interoperability 

To attain rapid, efficient, cost-effective 

functionality, many systems designers adopt 

the principles of network-centric operations 

(NCO). An outgrowth of the concept of network-centric 

warfare, NCO seeks to harness 

the power of information and interoperability, 

enabled by both policy and technology, 

to provide a competitive advantage to stakeholders 

in any marketplace. Applying NCO in 

practice, however, challenges would-be 

adopters to rapidly transform their business, 

government or civil agency. 

The Network Centric Operations Industry 

Consortium (NCOIC) plays an important 

role in meeting this challenge. NCOIC facilitates 

NCO by identifying existing and 

emerging common open standards and recommending 

patterns of open-standard use. 

To perform this role, NCOIC has developed 

a number of evaluation tools, which are 

currently being used by global agencies and 

governments to identify net-centric requirements 

and measure net-centricity. 

Raytheon’s Leadership Role in NCOIC 

Raytheon, a founding executive member of 

NCOIC, provides leadership to the consortium 

with more than 20 active participants on 

teams and work groups. Governance and 

strategic counsel are provided by the executive 

council, which is currently led by the 

executive council chair — retired Adm. 

Robert C. “Willie” Williamson, U.S. Navy — 

who is vice president of ICS International 

Programs for Network Centric Systems. 

Within the tool suite for NCO measurement is 

the Network Centric Analysis Tool (NCAT). 

NCAT facilitates analyzing architectures, 

frameworks and reference models against 

industry standards. NCOIC uses NCAT and 

other tools in the suite to complete this 

analysis and then to evaluate operational 

domains to understand the requirements of, 

and obstacles to, achieving net-centricity. 


ARCHITECTURE & SYSTEMS INTEGRATION 

To measure the degree of net-readiness of 

missions and systems, NCAT assesses interoperability 

goals as specified in or derived 

from the customer mission statement, mission 

needs and solutions to needs. NCAT also 

helps to measure the net-centric interoperability 

of the systems created to meet those 

needs. Not only does NCAT provide a snapshot 

of the progress in developing system 

interoperability, it provides feedback and closes 

the loop for iterative interoperability 

improvements. A positive NCAT assessment 

can provide ample confidence that the system 

will work in a network-centric environment. 

The original NCAT was spreadsheet-based, 

and measured the net-centricity of a concept 

or system relative to the net-centric 

checklist produced by the U.S. Office of the 

Assistant Secretary of Defense for Networks 

and Information Integration (NII). A more 

collaborative engine was developed to support 

geographically distributed teams and 

improve NCAT’s usability. 

The new NCAT v2 is a Web-based tool that 

allows users to select from a wide range of 

tailorable interoperability criteria. The metrics 

derived from using NCAT provide insight 

into the level of interoperability resulting 

from a design process. Consequently, NCAT 

may be valuable in generating or understanding 

customer mission models and 

domain general architectures. NCAT may also 

be useful in evaluating the net-centricity or 

net-enablement of alternative options in 

trade study analyses. Member organizations 

use NCAT to perform self-assessments and to 

evaluate potential net-centricity of systems 

being developed with their customers. 

Two vendors provided engines for the NCAT 

evaluation. Microsoft provided a version 

based on SharePoint ® team services, and 

Pavone provided a Java technology version 

through IBM. Each platform shares 

common content and offers different 

advantages. Both engines use SQL databases 

and are Web-enabled. They can be used 

in the open Internet or a closed intranet, or 

they can stand alone on a single personal 

computer. Each program can tailor NCAT’s 

questions and prioritize the value of the 

responses to suit a particular environment. 

Progress can be assessed based on planned 

goals and actual results. Data exchanges are 

available using XML and other standard means. 

NCAT assesses compliance via predefined 

questions and multiple-choice answers. 

Questions are grouped into tailorable profiles 

such as Information Assurance and 

Data Strategy. Assessments are performed 

by individuals. NCAT can aggregate the 

responses from multiple assessors into survey 

results. Reporting mechanisms are available 

to publish, summarize and quantify the 

results. All data is protected using rolebased 

access controls, ensuring the data is 

kept private and not openly visible. For 

more details, visit the NCOIC website 

(https://www.ncoic.org/technology/deliverables/ncat). 

Instances of both engines are 

available for evaluation on publicly available 

servers and also on Raytheon internal 

servers on ORION. 

Status 

NCOIC tools are currently being used 

together successfully to achieve interoperable 

nodes in systems, systems of systems, 

or families of systems and to develop recommendations 

for various mission teams, 

including global aviation transformation, 

mobile emergency communications 

interoperability, NATO interoperability, 

and sense-and-respond logistics. 

NCOIC’s work helps NCO stakeholders to 

move from their diverse enterprise models 

to net-centricity among their applications. 

The consortium works to ensure that the 

products, concepts of operations, and new 

marketplace capabilities for all NCO 

YESTERDAY…TODAY…TOMORROW

stakeholders around the globe — 

whether civil, military or government — 

are created with the knowledge that 

the standards they apply will allow 

them to function with others in the 

market space. 

Mike Beauford 

mike_beauford@raytheon.com 

NCOIC and NCAT are trademarks of the Network 

Centric Operations Industry Consortium. 

SharePoint is a registered trademark of Microsoft 

Corporation. 

Java is a trademark of Sun Microsystems, Inc. 

NCOIC is committed to increasing adoption 

of NCO concepts and to encouraging 

the use of NCO infrastructure and methodology. 

The organization is developing an 

education and outreach program to ensure 

free and wide availability of tools and 

resource materials. 

Established in September 2004, NCOIC is a 

not-for-profit international corporation 

committed to integrating existing and 

emerging open standards into a common, 

evolving global framework that employs a 

common set of principles and processes to 

assist with the rapid global deployment of 

network-centric applications. NCOIC has a 

global membership of leading defense 

firms, educational institutions, government 

agencies, information technology providers, 

service providers, standards groups, and 

systems integrators. 

The consortium works with a multinational, 

multi-agency advisory council, which 

provides executive expertise and an operational 

world view. Global participants within 

NCOIC also contribute to the planning 

and implementation activities, ensuring 

that the consortium’s technical approach 

remains global in perspective and open. 

Leveraging Technology and Talent 

YESTERDAY…TODAY…TOMORROW 

A critical challenge for Raytheon is to more fully leverage our talents and technologies across 

the enterprise. For example: 

How can we take a cutting-edge technology solution developed at one location or business and 

use it to benefit other Raytheon businesses and customers? 

How should we most effectively share technology experience across our diverse, talented and 

geographically distributed Raytheon engineering community? 

To grow as a Mission Systems Integrator, how do we best integrate our products and 

technologies across our businesses? 

The Raytheon Technology Networks (TNs) were created a decade ago to address this challenge. 

The Raytheon Technology Networks are engineering networking communities across Raytheon 

that are formally organized, officially recognized and chartered to foster cross-business communication 

and collaboration. These networks give engineers the opportunity to share new technical 

advances, challenges, common technical interests, and Raytheon and customer perspectives that 

drive our technological direction, experiences, lessons learned and best practices. Each network 

promotes a One Company cross-business spirit to encourage technical collaboration, team 

building and knowledge sharing. 

Membership in the TNs is open to any interested Raytheon engineer; non-engineers may also 

join. The networks are organized by technology areas, and there are currently six TNs: Electro- 

Optical Systems (EOSTN), Mechanical and Material Systems (MMTN), Processing Systems 

(PSTN), RF Systems (RFSTN), Systems Engineering (SETN) and Software (SWTN). Each TN 

sponsors a number of Technology Interest Groups (TIGs) that focus on specific technologies or 

related disciplines. (Standards and Real-Time Java are two examples of TIGs.) Each year the TNs 

also facilitate a number of special projects and workshops that are associated with their specific 

disciplines and interests. 

The Technology Networks improve Raytheon’s ability to address its Mission Systems Integration 

(MSI) business. MSI demands a synthesis of Raytheon’s diverse capabilities, technologies, and 

systems architectures that can only be achieved by cross-business technical collaboration. This 

collaboration is, to a large degree, enabled by the Technology Networks through their TIGs, 

symposia and workshops. 

Uniform architecture standards and processes, for example, have become a focal point of the 

Systems and Enterprise Architecture TIG. Modeling and simulation advances, supported by the 

Modeling and Simulation TIG, are also crucial to reducing cost and risk in large-scale systems 

integration. The TNs are a proven vehicle for crossing company boundaries and sharing information. 

As systems become more complex, interoperable and networked, the need to learn and share 

will become even more critical, as will the TNs’ role in this process. 

In addition to the TIGs, each Technology Network sponsors an annual symposium. These 

gatherings provide a tremendous opportunity for Raytheon engineers to share new ideas, 

technical approaches and experiences. In this environment, valuable connections are made, 

seasoned engineers learn what’s happening outside of their local businesses, and new engineers 

experience first-hand the diversity and technical direction of the company. 

Raytheon employees can find further information on the Technology Networks at 

http://home.ray.com/rayeng/technetworks/welcome.html, or contact Rick Steiner at 

fsteiner@raytheon.com. To learn how to join a TIG, visit 

http://home.ray.com/rayeng/technetworks/how2join_a_tig_portal.html. 



Frequency Control Solutions Center 

Delivers Award-Winning RF Performance 

Throughout Raytheon 

When a Raytheon system must both 

generate and precisely control radio frequencies 

(RF), characteristics such as noise, 

frequency stability, bandwidth and power 

will affect overall performance. The 

Raytheon Frequency Control Solutions 

(FCS) center is an acknowledged technology 

leader in developing RF solutions based 

on surface acoustic wave (SAW) and 

microwave devices. So far, FCS has produced 

more than 30,000 RF modules. 

FCS was created by consolidating the 

former SAW and microwave operations 

groups at the Integrated Defense Systems 

(IDS) Integrated Air Defense Center in 

Andover, Mass. The center manufactures 

SAW filters and low-phase-noise oscillators, 

as well as complex microwave assemblies, 

such as transmit-receive and frequency 

synthesizer modules. 

Raytheon RF Components’ production 

wafer fabrication has been newly combined 

with FCS in 2008. This 250,000 sq. ft. 

facility contains a 25,000 sq. ft. gallium 

arsenide production foundry with a 

class-100 clean room that provides customers 

with leading-edge custom monolithic 

microwave integrated circuit, module 

and multifunction solutions for defense 

and other performance-driven applications. 

The FCS group focuses on Performance, 

Relationships and Solutions — the three 

pillars of Raytheon Customer Focused 

Marketing — to provide customers with 

the world’s lowest-noise, SAW-based products 

and microwave modules. 

Performance 

Whether designing a prototype SAW oscillator 

with the world’s lowest phase noise, 

or driving down the cycle time and cost of 

producing a complex microwave module, 

FCS is dedicated to achieving excellence in 

performance, while meeting or exceeding 


customer expectations. For example, implementing 

lean production methods on the 

SAW-matched filter used in Space and 

Airborne Systems’ (SAS) Firefinder program 

resulted in a 16-fold increase in production 

capacity, a 10-fold increase in efficiency, 

and significantly reduced cycle times. 

Work is organized into cells that focus on 

continuous improvement and use the 

Virtual Business System (VBS) relational 

database to provide real-time monitoring 

of various metrics, including work-inprocess, 

cycle time and earned value. VBS 

also uses each component’s serial number 

to provide a detailed tracking of the component’s 

technical performance. 

The FCS 55,000 sq. ft. production area 

includes both class-100K and class-10K 

clean rooms, along with a 24,000 sq. ft. 

area dedicated to volume production of RF 

modules. Processes performed include 

automated epoxy die attach, wire and ribbon 

bonding, hermetic device seam-sealing, 

eutectic soldering and the Raytheonproprietary 

All Quartz Package device that 

includes hermetic glass frit-sealed packages 

with laser trim of frequency after sealing. 

Ion-beam milling is used to etch grooves 

into the quartz resonators for the lowest 

RF SYSTEMS 

possible phase noise. Laser interferometry 

and atomic force microscopy are used to 

precisely control groove depths with an 

accuracy of better than 50 nm. 

The FCS’s RF measurement capabilities 

range from 30 MHz to 26.5 GHz, and 

automated equipment can perform 60,000 

RF measurements per second, including a 

full two-port S-parameter characterization 

in both receive and transmit modes. Screen 

rooms facilitate phase-noise measurements 

to -180 dBc. 

Relationships 

FCS supports all Raytheon businesses and is 

a proven partner across Raytheon for programs 

such as Patriot, THAAD, HARM and 

JLENS, plus numerous others. New programs 

in development include SeaRAM, Aegis, SRP 

and DDG 1000, along with several secure 

programs. FCS has also used shared independent 

research and development programs 

with both IDS and SAS to ensure 

that the products developed complement 

customers’ emerging requirements. 

Solutions 

Raytheon’s FCS is widely recognized as 

producing the world’s highest-performing 

SAW-based oscillators. Our products’ 

performance attributes, such as phase 

noise and frequency stability, are typically 

three to 10 times better than those of 

products available from other industry 

sources. Achieving aging rates of less than 

1 ppm/year, Raytheon SAW resonators use 

a patented All-Quartz-Package (AQP) to 

achieve the world’s best SAW device stability. 


AQP resonators are combined with the 

associated electronics to form a highly reliable 

and precise RF oscillator. To remove 

any chemical impurities and thereby ensure 

excellent aging performance, resonators 

are sealed at temperatures exceeding 

400ºC and vacuum of less than 10 -9 torr. 

Performance attributes include phase noise 

of better than -140 dBc at a 1 kHz offset 

and total frequency stability of 10 ppm 

over the product life. Phase noise during 

vibration is also generally specified, and 

FCS maintains the necessary test equipment 

to perform operations testing over 

the full mix of anticipated environmental 

conditions. Vibration isolation techniques 

are often employed to minimize any phasenoise 

degradation on the oscillator as a 

result of mechanical vibration. 

FCS microwave assemblies use a combination 

of printed circuit board and hybrid 

packaging technologies. Of particular note 

are transmit–receive integrated microwave 

modules (TRIMMs), which FCS manufactures 

in production volumes for phased 

array radars. The TRIMM provides the final 

stage of RF transmit power amplification, 

phase shifting and receive signal conversion. 

Our gallium nitride (GaN) investment provides 

a roadmap for significantly higher 

performance, lower cost, lighter and smaller 

solutions for next-generation radar, missile 

seekers, and advanced communications 

and sensor systems. GaN is a disruptive 

high-power semiconductor technology that 

will enable a new class of microwave and 

millimeter wave RF systems envisioned for 

the near future. This performance gives 

Raytheon a strategic advantage in the development 

of next-generation defense systems. 

FCS played an integral part in the successful 

effort to win the National Shingo Silver 

Prize Award in 2007. 

More information on FCS can be found 

under Raytheon’s Products and Services tab 

at Raytheon Company: Products & Services: 

Andover Surface Acoustic Wave (SAW) 

Fabrication Facility. 

Roger L. Clark 

roger_l_clark@raytheon.com 

Contributor: John Finkenaur 

Multiple-Input Multiple-Output Radar: 

An Idea Whose Time Has Come? 

Recent research shows that multiple-input 

multiple-output (MIMO) antenna systems 

may dramatically improve the performance 

of communication systems. MIMO radar, a 

more recent development of the same concept, 

has been used by MIT Lincoln 

Laboratory and academic researchers, as well 

as by Raytheon and our competitors. 

A MIMO radar system transmits independent 

waveforms from multiple spatially separated 

antennas, and receives the signals on 

multiple spatially separated antennas. This 

article discusses the MIMO radar concept, 

the benefits and challenges associated with 

this approach, and directions for future 

investigation. The discussion concerns a 

MIMO system that consists of a transmit 

array with widely spaced elements such 

that each element views a different aspect 

of the target. 

MIMO Radar System Advantages 

Researchers believe that MIMO radars can 

offer significant advantages over phased 

arrays and other radar architectures, 

because MIMO radars can increase the 

number of available degrees of freedom. 

These additional degrees of freedom can be 

exploited to improve resolution, mitigate 

clutter, and enhance classification performance. 

Researchers postulate that MIMO 

radar systems can also improve angular 

estimation and direction-finding accuracy. 

In the standard MIMO radar configuration, 

a significant loss in the signal-to-noise 

ratio (SNR) is expected because of the 

non-coherent combination of orthogonal 

waveforms inherent in MIMO radars. When 

configured in sparse aperture, however, 

MIMO radars can achieve significant SNR 

gain. Also, unlike the beamforming system 

commonly used in conventional radars — 

which uses the high correlation between 

signals either transmitted or received by an 


RF SYSTEMS 

Transmitter N 

Transmitter 2 

Transmitter 1 

The MIMO radar architecture 

Receiver 1 

Receiver N 

Receiver 2 

array — the MIMO concept can exploit the 

independence between signals at the array 

elements to capitalize on target scintillations, 

thereby improving radar performance. 

There are two general classes of MIMO 

radar systems. In the first class, all transmitters 

have the same autocorrelation characteristics, 

and the transmit antenna locations 

are also the receive locations. In the second 

class, the antennas are widely distributed, 

and each transmitter antenna has a distinct 

waveform (similar to a sparse array). 

Challenges and Mitigations 

Although the MIMO radar architecture provides 

additional degrees of freedom that 

can be exploited to improve radar performance, 

several authors, at both MIT Lincoln 

Laboratory and Raytheon, have questioned 

how well MIMOs would perform in real 

radar applications. In particular, questions 

have been posed about potential SNR loss, 

compared to phased arrays, caused by the 

previously mentioned non-coherent combination 

of orthogonal waveforms. Questions 

have also been raised about the robustness 

and efficiency of MIMO radars and their 

ability to mitigate multiple sidelobe effects. 

Recent research has addressed some of 

these issues. SNR loss may be mitigated by 

using a coherent transmit and receive strategy. 

This strategy allows a MIMO radar to 

transmit coherently from all the apertures, 

thereby potentially improving overall system 



RF SYSTEMS (continued) 


SNR. With respect to a MIMO radar system’s 

robustness, efficiency and ability to 

mitigate multiple sidelobe effects, the performance 

evaluation is usually done in 

terms of the Cramer-Rao bound (CRB), 

which is a lower minimum mean square 

error (MSE) bound on the performance of 

all unbiased MIMO estimators. However, 

CRB is mostly used for angle-of-arrival estimation, 

and it ignores the effects of sidelobe-induced 

errors. The Weiss-Weinstein 

bound (WWB) can also be used to evaluate 

the lower bound MSE performance of all 

MIMO unbiased estimators. The WWB 

bound includes the effects of multiple sidelobes 

and provides a more accurate theoretical 

platform for comparing the performance 

of MIMO versus phased array radars. 

Future directions 

A MIMO communication system is clearly a 

good idea because of the inherent advantages 

provided by its architecture. MIMO 

radar is a derivative of MIMO communication 

systems, but it is still widely considered 

to be a research topic. Under the right conditions, 

however, MIMO radars can offer 

significant advantages, such as better performance 

in a multipath environment, limited 

bandwidth and power requirements, 

and adaptive degrees of freedom. In particular, 

robustness to multipath — especially 

for shipborne radars — appears to be a 

promising application of MIMO radar; 

although, standard methods using phased 

arrays can effectively compete. 

Several other keys areas of radar performance 

may also benefit from MIMO technology. 

In particular, over-the-horizon radar 


systems have inherent characteristics such 

as limited bandwidth at HF, severe ionospheric 

multipath, challenging clutter environment 

and poor angular resolution; many 

of these could be reduced or eliminated 

through a MIMO approach. As noted 

above, MIMO radar’s coherent transmit and 

receive capability can enhance resolution; 

mitigate clutter; and improve detection, 

tracking and classification performance. 

MIMO radars can also effectively use commercial-off–the-shelf 

(COTS) MIMO technology 

to reduce development time and cost. 

When MIMO is compared to phased array 

radars, however, other issues arise. The 

complexity and feasibility of calibrating 

both receive and transmit paths for tropospheric 

and ionospheric errors, radar hardware 

errors, and multipath require some 

significant design considerations and tradeoffs 

compared to phased array technology. 

Moreover, standard MIMO radars can suffer 

substantial SNR loss relative to phased 

arrays, as discussed above. Finally, in many 

cases, current phased array radars using 

simpler, less expensive and less risky algorithms 

can achieve some of the same 

advantages as MIMO radars. 

With all of its advantages and disadvantages, 

however, MIMO radar — and the development 

of the required technology to make it 

an effective system — are worth investigating. 

Future radar requirements will challenge 

the capabilities of current systems and 

require the investigation of other approaches. 

MIMO radars may provide a platform to 

address some of these challenges. 

Dr. Pierre-Richard Cornely 

pierre-richard_j_cornely@raytheon.com 


Raytheon and 

CALCE: 

Partners in 

Lead-Free Research 

The aerospace–defense industry is 

addressing new environmental regulations 

and their effects on electronic equipment 

performance. The European Union’s 

Restrictions on the Use of Hazardous 

Substances (RoHS) regulations have 

changed supply-chain scope, causing more 

suppliers to provide components/assemblies 

with lead-free materials (as interconnection 

or finish) rather than the traditional 

tin-lead. Raytheon supports reducing hazardous 

substances, but our responsibility to 

our customers requires us to ask how well 

these materials will perform in harsh-use 

environments. 

Because this issue concerns many defense 

and aerospace companies (system integrators 

and multi-tier suppliers) the industry 

has created several working groups and 

consortia to address performance issues, 

risks and mitigation plans and practices. 

This article discusses Raytheon’s successful 

collaboration with the University of 

Maryland Center for Advanced Life-Cycle 

Engineering (CALCE ® ) consortium in 

researching lead-free materials. 

The Challenges 

Differences between various lead-free solders 

and the traditionally used eutectic tinlead 

(63Sn-37Pb) can affect equipment 

performance. As the primary interconnection 

for electronic components, solder is a 

critical material. However, the relative newness 

of lead-free solders in 

aerospace–defense applications limits the 

amount of data available for evaluating 

interconnection performance. Real-time 

field data is always preferred to accelerated 

life testing and modeling, but the relatively 

swift implementation of RoHS has prevented 

the timely acquisition of such data. 

Although the aerospace–defense industry is 

exempt from the ban on lead, the problem 

still affects us; many of our commercially 

obtained items will contain lead-free materials 

as suppliers change their products to 


The industry continues to study the 

formation mechanisms of tin whiskers. 

Shown here are tin whiskers “grown” in a 

room temperature environment. 

meet the needs of larger-market-share 

customers. Lead-free surface finishes also 

present risks. For example, pure tin finishes 

are prone to tin whisker growth, which 

can cause equipment failure. The 

Raytheon–CALCE partnership is an important 

resource in meeting these challenges. 

The CALCE Connection 

Raytheon’s relationship with CALCE began 

during the restructuring of the Raytheon, 

Hughes Aircraft, TI Defense Systems and 

E-Systems legacy organizations. These 

organizations’ “hardcore” electronic packaging 

personnel created a composite of 

their company standards and cooperated on 

common issues. For example, in response to 

the Perry Initiative1 in 1996, the new 

Raytheon Commercialization team worked 

on integrating commercial technologies into 

aerospace–defense systems. Manufacturing, 

reliability, quality, components, design, 

materials and process engineering 

disciplines participated. 

The changeover from mil-spec packaging of 

microcircuits to the commercial plastic encapsulated 

microcircuits (PEMs) was in full gear. 

The legacy TI Defense Systems had been a 

charter member of the CALCE Consortium. 

Raytheon Commercialization team members 

quickly understood that we needed access to 

CALCE’s PEMs studies, and we jointly found 

funding to make it happen. This was the 

first time that CALCE membership helped 

us. It would not be the last. 

Benefits 

Raytheon uses CALCE as a major resource 

in researching lead-free materials. The 

Raytheon–CALCE partnership: 

Provides corporate teams (RoHS team, Tin 

Whisker core team, Mechanical and 

Materials Technology Network’s Lead-free 

and Tin Whisker Technical Interest Group 

[and its Processing Systems TN counter- 

part]) with data and information. For 

example, in a 2003 project, thermal-cycle 

data between lead-free and standard tinlead 

solder was obtained via a test vehicle 

typical of an aerospace-defense working 

environment. This was a first. A longterm-reliability 

study provided first-time 

data on lead-free thermal cycling performance 

at -55C to +125C for over 

3000 cycles of test. 

Allowed Raytheon to create and lead the 

national Raytheon–CALCE Tin Whisker 

Group, whose weekly teleconferences 

have continued for more than five years with 

participation by more than 110 government, 

industry and academia sites. These 

telecons have improved our understanding 

of tin whisker growth mechanisms 

and mitigation strategies (see Figure). 

Has enabled a Raytheon–Navy Mantech 

project on tin whisker risk mitigation. Our 

association with CALCE helped us win 

the proposal solicitation, and we used 

CALCE resources as part of the project 

team. This project recently enabled a 

related MDA SBIR Phase I project, with 

about $1.5 million of government funding 

applied to the two projects so far. 

This shows that CALCE membership not 

only helps us solve technology insertion 

problems, but can also help us obtain 

government funding for our work. 

Provides all Raytheon engineers with 

many additional resources, including use 

of online tools such as calcePWA and 

calceFAST software for state-of-the-art 

modeling of lead-free effects on circuit 

card assembly reliability and performance; 

CALCE reliability simulation software; 

CALCE research data; online books/references; 

open forums; special conference 


MATERIALS & STRUCTURES 

proceedings — even limited consultation 

with CALCE researchers. 

In addition, the consortium averages 35 

projects annually, primarily on technology 

insertion and failure modes associated with 

new technologies. This practical guidance 

helps members understand challenges to 

inserting a technology into a product line. 

For example, two changes in commercial 

electronics profoundly affect every Raytheon 

program: shifting to PEMs and adapting to 

lead-free solders, surface finishes and the 

resulting tin whiskers risk. 

Support 

Raytheon’s University Relations organization 

effectively supports the Raytheon–CALCE 

partnership and acknowledges its contributions. 

Managing the partnership as a corporate 

entity gives all Raytheon employees 

access to the CALCE members website and 

resource. In fact, more than 400 Raytheon 

engineers, domestically or internationally, 

have accessed CALCE’s database. 

A Model of Success 

Raytheon’s CALCE Consortium participation 

exemplifies a successful, effective university 

partnership. By exploiting the synergies 

between an aerospace–defense company 

and a world-class research and academic 

organization, a critical industry challenge 

is being addressed so that Raytheon can 

continue to provide quality products and 

maintain customer confidence. 

Tony Rafanelli, 

anthony_j_rafanelli@raytheon.com 

Co-author: Bill Rollins 

1http:home.ray.com/ar/sec30.htm CALCE is a registered trademark of the University of 

Maryland College Park. 

calceFAST is a trademark of the University of Maryland 

College Park. 



Using Ontologies and Semantic Web Technologies 

to Enable Interoperability 

The Intelligent Systems Technology 

Interest Group (TIG), a part of the 

Processing Systems Technology Network 

(PSTN), hosted a workshop on how to 

leverage ontologies 1 and semantic Web 

technologies to enable interoperability. 

Raytheon’s customers have been addressing 

the interoperability challenge for several 

years. The growing number of deployed systems 

and the need to make them interact 

are driving this process. Workshop participants 

examined ways to overcome this challenge 

by using techniques from cognitive 

and intelligent systems technology. 

A major product created at the workshop 

was the cognitive systems maturity curve 

shown in Figure 1. This curve illustrates the 

levels of technology maturity needed to 

achieve more “cognitive-enabled” systems. 

The x-axis depicts the range of cognitive 

capability, from recovery and discovery up 

through intelligence and question-answering, 

and eventually to reasoning. The y-axis 

shows the amount of metadata needed to 

move from a weak semantic environment 

to a strong one. 

The maturity curve crosses several levels. 

The higher the level, the more interoperability 

is supported; but this support also 

requires the use of more automation and 

cognition. Also apparent in Figure 1 is that 

related mechanisms and technologies 

appear within the interoperability level they 

sustain, with each grey dot identifying a 

significant capability transition point. 

The maturity curve begins with syntactic 

interoperability, where the most basic data 

interchanges can occur. The next level is 

structural interoperability, where segments 

of the information structure, such as 

schemas, are now exchangeable as well. 

The next level is true semantic interoperability, 

but even here there are sub-levels. The 

further up the curve a system resides, the 

more efficient the exchange becomes with 


Strong 

Semantics 

Increasing Metadata 

Weak 

Semantics 

List 

Taxonomy 

Glossary 

Controlled Vocabulary 

more cognitive capabilities being applied; 

but more metadata is also needed to leverage 

these capabilities. The workshop participants’ 

final assessment was that Raytheon 

needs to develop these technologies quickly 

so that we can provide our customers with 

more complete interoperability solutions. 

Raytheon is moving from simply using relational 

database technologies and extensible 

modeling language (XML) for codifying data 

to using Web services for data interchange 

in our Service Oriented Architectures. 

Furthermore, we are leveraging Unified 

Modeling Language (UML ® ) for the definition 

and construction of systems using 

Model Driven Architecture (MDA ® ) techniques. 

We are now beginning to use the 

resource description framework and the 

Web Ontology Language technologies to 

capture semantic relationships. As these 

technologies mature, and their use becomes 

more prevalent in our solutions, Raytheon 

will continue to move up the curve of 

semantic interoperability, where the real 

breakthroughs in interoperability will 

be achieved. 

PROCESSING SYSTEMS 

Logical Theory 

Temporal 

Modal Logic 

Modal Logic 

First Order Logic 

Description Logic 

DAML+OIL, OWL 

Conceptual Model 

RDF/S 

UML 

Semantic Interoperability 

Thesaurus Topic Map 

Relational Model, XML 

ER Model 

DB Schema, XML Schema 

Increasing Cognitive Capability 

Structural Interoperability 

Syntactic Interoperability 

Recovery Discovery Intelligence Question Answering Reasoning 

Figure 1. Cognitive Systems Maturity Curve. The various technologies that enable cognitive 

and intelligent systems are shown relative to their ability to represent semantics. 

Because many of the issues relating to interoperability 

also relate to architectures, the 

workshop participants leveraged the 

Zachman Framework 2 to capture a matrix 

that will be used to shape the questions 

and answers to “what, how, where, who, 

when, and why” of the capabilities necessary 

for moving up the maturity curve. 

These steps have now been incorporated 

into the cognitive systems strategy for the 

TIG going forward. 

For more information contact the authors. 

Rick Wood, richard_j_wood@raytheon.com 

Jim Jacobs, jim_jacobs@raytheon.com 

Paul Work, paul_r_work@raytheon.com 

1Ontology is defined as an accounting of a conceptualization 

of the kinds of things that must exist, and facts 

about those things, as sortal types, that must be true in 

all possible worlds. These facts and conceptualizations 

are generally necessary, a priori knowledge that cannot 

be otherwise, and known independent of observation of 

the world. 

2For information on the Zachman Framework, visit 

http://www.zifa.com/ and http://www.zachmaninternational.com/2/Home.asp 

MDA and UML are registered trademarks of the Object 

Management Group. 


Raytheon 

Systems Engineering Technical Development Program 

SEtdp Graduates 57 

Systems Engineers 

The Systems Engineering Technical 

Development Program (SEtdp) conducted a 

graduation ceremony for Waves 14 and 15 

on Nov. 15. This was the fourth such event 

in 2007, and last year more than 210 engineers 

completed this challenging program 

intended to accelerate the development of 

systems engineers from across the enterprise. 

Fifty-seven students — engineers from 

across the enterprise — celebrated their 

program completion at the ceremony held 

in Arlington, Va. Raytheon Engineering 

leaders also participated: Brian Wells 

(Corporate), Robert Smith (IDS) Kevin Kuehn 

(IIS), Scott Whatmough (NCS), Bob Lepore 

(RMS), and Pete Gould (SAS). Ben Mesick, 

ET&MA Engineering learning leader from 

Leadership and Innovative Learning, also 

attended. Dr. Mitchell Springer from RTSC 

was keynote speaker at the dinner. 

SEtdp launched its first class in June 2004. 

The program is designed to address the 

need to accelerate the development of 

Raytheon’s future technical leaders — chief 

engineers, lead systems engineers, technical 

directors — who will be needed due to the 

retirement of key systems engineering talent 

across the company, and to address the 

demand for systems engineers needed to 

help Raytheon’s growth in Mission Systems 

Integration and System of Systems areas. 

Participants are nominated from the pool of 

top engineering talent from across the company 

and selected through a screening process. 

There are currently 560 participants — 174 

active in the program and 386 graduates. 

Four additional waves are planned for 2008. 

Groups of students form waves that spend 

a week at each business headquarters, culminating 

in a final week in Arlington, Va. 

The program involves 240 hours of classroom 

activities. There are six sessions in 

SEtdp, and at each session the students 

engage in interactive learning activities and 

site tours that focus on key technologies 

from each business. Sessions are divided 

into a series of learning modules that cover 

a wide range of topics — from technical 

discussions to customer interface skills, from 

product lines to theory and application. 

Technical presenters are subject matter 

experts (SMEs) in their fields, and are prominent 

members of the engineering community 

who are eager to share their knowledge 

and skills. Leadership team members 

lead business classes and technical 

overviews that allow the wave of crosscompany 

participants to learn the depth 

and breadth of each of the businesses. 

Bob Byren, principal engineering fellow and 

EO/IR and Laser Technology area director for 

SAS, developed and instructs the Active EO 

Sensors module at the first session at SAS. 

Bob said that his module gives the students 

a sound technical basis from which to make 

prudent system trades involving different 

sensor and weapon functions. 

Commenting on graduating students, Byren 

stated, “It has been gratifying to hear back 

from our graduates that they have used the 

technical information and methodologies 

learned in SEtdp to improve their own 

effectiveness as systems engineers and 

architects and enhance their personal value 

to Raytheon.” 

Waves also work on a set of class projects, 

where the cross-company teams of students 

Events 

apply their broad expertise to topics of 

enterprise-wide impact. The teams work to 

address current engineering challenges, 

culminating in a formal presentation at 

session six. 

Many students are SMEs in their technical 

areas, and many have returned to the program 

as faculty to present one or more 

learning modules. 

Larry Robinson, Wave 6 graduate, and now 

Wave 17 facilitator, said that he appreciates 

that, “Raytheon has chosen to invest time 

and resources in the development of the 

engineering leaders of tomorrow. We are 

being proactive … about the engineering gaps 

that the industry will face in the near future.” 

Graduates of the SEtdp develop an understanding 

of the value that One Company 

behaviors can have in helping to grow the 

business. They bring the knowledge gained 

back to their businesses and apply it to their 

programs and share what they have learned 

with their peers. Several graduates have 

gone on to attend the Raytheon Certified 

Architect Program to join the growing number 

of certified architects across the company. 

Others have been promoted to chief engineer 

and lead systems engineer positions. 

As a recent graduate wrote, “The SEtdp 

experience certainly has contributed to my 

personal technical growth and to the subsequent 

growth of our programs.” 

Paul Benton 

paul_h_benton@raytheon.com 


Upcoming Engineering and 

Technology External Events 

INCOSE 2008 

Systems Engineering 

for the Planet 

June 15–19, 2008 

Netherlands 

http://www.incose.org/symp2008 

MILCOMM 2008 

Assuring Mission Success 

Nov. 17–19, 2008 

San Diego Convention Center 

www.milcomm.org 

NDIA 8th Annual CMMI 

Technology Conference 

Nov. 17–20, 2008 

Hyatt Regency Tech Center 

Denver, Colorado 

www.ndia.org/meetings/9110 


Events 

2007 

Excellence in 

Engineering and Technology Awards 

The 2007 Raytheon Excellence in Engineering 

and Technology (EiET) Awards were held 

March 3, 2008, at the Smithsonian’s National 

Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C. 

The awards, Raytheon’s highest technical 

honor, recognize individuals and teams who 

have achieved technological breakthroughs 

and demonstrated program excellence that 

contributed to the success of Raytheon and 

our customers. 

Eighty-six people were honored during the 

dinner and awards ceremony in the museum’s 

Milestones of Flight Gallery. The award 

recipients comprised 17 team and five individual 

examples of excellence, hailing from 

every business — including a “One 

Company” award and an Information 

Technology award. 

Gen. John R. Dailey, director of the National 

Air and Space Museum, kicked off the program 

by welcoming attendees and thanking 

Raytheon for its longstanding association with 

the museum and Chairman and CEO Bill 

Swanson for his unwavering support. 

In his opening remarks, Taylor W. Lawrence, 

vice president of corporate Engineering, 

Technology and Mission Assurance, noted 

that it is no coincidence that the first word 

in the award’s name is “excellence.” 

Excellence is one of Raytheon’s core values, 

and has been called out as a virtue since at 

least the ancient Greeks. By achieving excellence, 

the evening’s honorees inspired him 

and the entire company to meet and exceed 

a new standard for technical excellence. 

After dinner, Swanson delivered the 

evening’s keynote remarks, involving the 

audience in the spirit of the awards. He 

concluded by saying, “It is an honor to 

recognize and celebrate your achievements 

in engineering and technology.” He was 

then joined onstage by Lawrence and 

business leaders as each award winner was 

personally congratulated. 

Master of Ceremonies Mike Doble, 

Raytheon director of Strategic 

Communications, read citations describing 

each award achievement, and gave special 

recognition to Bruce Bohannan. As part of 

the IIS NPOESS Data Processing Latency 

Performance team, Bohannan received the 

third Excellence in Engineering and 

Technology Award of his career. 

Raytheon congratulates and applauds this 

year’s winners for helping keep Raytheon on 

the leading edge of innovation. To learn more 

about the award winners, visit the Raytheon 

Excellence in Engineering and Technology 

Awards oneRTN spotlight feature at 

http://home.ray.com/feature/ray08_ 

eiet_recap.

One Company 

Sense Through the Wall Team 

Scott E. Adcook, Carl D. Cook, 

Mena J. Ghebranious, Roy G. Hatfield, 

Michael D. Lee 

VisiBuilding Phase I Team 

Jerry M. Grimm, Jacob Kim, Gregory M. Oehler, 

Raymond Samaniego, John L. Tomich 

Integrated Defense Systems 

Joseph A. Preiss (Individual Award) 

Joint Fires (JFires) Engineering Team 

Anthony J. Curreri, Jr., John P. Kantelis, 

Ketul K. Mavani, Alfred A. Pandiscio, 

Robert E. Wilcox 

Intelligence and Information Systems 

Michael O. Tierney (Individual Award) 

CAMELHAIR Team 

Paul J. Gibbons, Mary E. Neidigh, 

Ruth Anne F. Straub, Steven P. Zygmunt 

HISIT Development Team 

Richard J. Ernst, William C. Howard, 

Leith A. Shabbot, Walter R. Smith, 

Efrain M. Velazquez 

NPOESS Data Processing Latency 

Performance Team 

Mary Y. Barnhart, Bruce Bohannan, 

Dale A. Hargrave, Kenneth E. McConnell, 

Jerry L. Thomas 

Information Technology 

Computational Fluid Dynamics Runtime 

Environment Team 

Amzie McWhorter, Kurt Elkins 

Missile Systems 

Reagan Branstetter (Individual Award) 

Adaptive Air Vehicle Technology IRAD 

Adaptive Control Development Team 

Todd M. Fanciullo, Rob J. Fuentes, 

Richard E. Hindman, Yung J. Lee, 

Joshua Matthews 

NCADE Seeker Flight Test 

Demonstration Team 

Robert G. Allaire, Mark G. Ascher, 

William M. Mcnerney, Brent R. Nokleby, 

Joseph H. Thomason 

Tomahawk Software Team 

Martin J. Bremner, Dennis I. Cajayon, 

Scott A. Etzenhouser, William H. Martin, 

Pamela J. Pruitt 

Network Centric Systems 

William T. Pacheco (Individual Award) 

Events 

2007 Excellence in Engineering and Technology Award Winners 

FAA Long Range Radar Service Life 

Extension Program Team 

Miron Catoiu, Peter E. Cornwell, Rick McKerracher, 

Peter Mlynarski, Matthew Sullivan 

Google Earth/KML Exploitation Disruptive 

IRAD Team 

John S. Bryan, Demron Ignace, 

Stephen C. Johnson, Barry L. Peterson, 

Rhys R. Ravelo 

MicroLight Radio Development Team 

Richard P. Buchanan, Terry E. Flach, 

David C. Helsel, Andy D. Ngo, 

Thanh M. Nguyen 

Raytheon Technical Services Company 

Jackal Improvised Explosive Device 

Countermeasure System Team 

Jeffrey W. Au, Marion P. Hensley, 

Kenneth A. Pitcher, Paul G. Ziegler, 

Mark A. Merriman 

Space and Airborne Systems 

Jon Mooney (Individual Award) 

Integrated Sensor Is Structure Aperture 

Development Team 

Mark S. Hauhe, Clifton Quan, Kevin C. Rolston, 

Alberto F. Viscarra, David T. Winslow 

Morphable Networked Micro-Architecture 

Team 

William D. Farwell, Lloyd J. Lewins, 

Kenneth E. Prager, Stephanie J. Santos, 

Michael D. Vahey 

Precision Tracking System Team 

John L. Abedor, Jonathan S. Bain, 

David O. Lahti, Daniel E. Nieuwsma, 

Colin N. Sakamoto 



A wildcat is stranded in a flooded area 

and you are the only one around who can 

rescue him. All you have is glue, masking 

tape, rope, string, cardboard, plastic bags, 

straws, rubber bands, bubble wrap and 

other basic supplies. What do you do? 

That’s the scenario 300 middle school 

students from Tucson, Ariz., faced Jan. 31 

at the second annual MathMovesU Day at 

the University of Arizona. It might remind 

you of the 1970 Apollo 13 space mission, 

in which U.S. astronaut Jim Lovell radioed 

mission control saying, “Houston, we have 

a problem.” That crew had only basic 

material and little time to repair their spacecraft 

after losing most of their electrical 

power and oxygen supply in space. 

Fortunately, NASA’s elite engineers helped 

save the Apollo 13 mission by having the 

astronauts configure some of the same 

materials that the MathMovesU students 

used in their competition. 

The wildcat is actually the University of 

Arizona mascot Wilbur the Wildcat, who 

was stranded on top of a simulated mountain 

inside the school’s gymnasium. Working 

in teams led by Raytheon engineers, the 

middle school students used their basic 

materials to construct devices to carry Wilbur 

to a lower mountain 20 feet away without 

ever touching the ground in between. 

“I learned how to actually make something, 

how it moves, what the speed is and how 

your design creates it not to be damaged,” 

said 8th grade student Shy Hoffman. “I 

would tell my friends, when you really get 

to know math, everything looks so cool and 

it really makes you want to do more.” 

The students who participated are members 

of the Mathematics, Engineering, Science 

Achievement (MESA) program. MESA is a 

national program designed to increase the 

number of ethnic-minority, low-income, and 

first-generation students who attend a fouryear 

university. 


Raytheon Engineers Help 

MathMovesU Students Design 

Rescue Device 

“I want to be an engineer because I’m 

interested in the projects that we’re doing 

so far and the scholarships that they’re 

offering in robotics engineering. I think it’s 

really cool,” explained 8th grade student 

Sierra Perez. 

Raytheon engineers in the company’s 

Leadership Development Program assisted 

the students with their designs. “It was a 

great opportunity to work with middle 

school students at Raytheon’s MathMovesU 

event,” said Noel Manley. “These kids are 

important to the future of our nation and 

Raytheon. I'm proud to work for a company 

that understands the value of investing in 

young people.” 

“Raytheon Missile Systems (MS) engineers, 

like those throughout our company, fully 

realize the importance of helping to foster 

student interest in math and science,” said 

Bob Lepore, MS vice president of 

Engineering. “Our engineers volunteer 

at major events like MathMovesU Day, 

but they also visit schools and speak in 

classrooms year-round.” 

MathMovesU was created by Raytheon to 

help reverse the trend in declining math 

scores among American middle school students. 

The program focuses on driving students 

to the MathMovesU.com website, 

where they can interact in math games 

based on typical school interests such as 

sports, music and fashion. Since November 

2005, MathMovesU has awarded more 

than $2 million in grants and scholarships 

to students and teachers. 

Get Involved in Raytheon’s Math and 

Science Education Programs 

MathMovesU is one of several math and 

science education programs Raytheon runs 

or supports. Thousands of Raytheon 

employees volunteer in the community by 

tutoring students, coaching MATHCOUNTS ® 

and FIRST Robotics teams, and raising 

financial support for students and education 

programs. For a complete list of 

Raytheon’s educational assistance programs 

and how you can get involved, contact your 

local community relations representative. 

Rick Ramirez 

rramirez@raytheon.com

The Challenge 

To the warfighter, combat systems and 

equipment must operate correctly the 

first time and every time — whether it 

is old, new or somewhere in between. To the 

system architect, designer and logistician, 

ensuring the equipment keeps working as it 

was designed has always been a daunting 

challenge. Raytheon is responding to this 

challenge by incorporating prognostics and 

health management (PHM) into our systems 

to ensure they continue operating and predicting 

when failure is imminent or likely — 

before actual failure. The Raytheon solution 

to PHM combines technology, communications 

and data processing. 

“With more frequency our customers are 

requiring prognostics and health 

management capability in the products 

Raytheon supplies. This initiative is in 

lockstep with our Mission Assurance goal 

of delivering ‘no doubt’ products 

and systems, and plays to our strengths 

as an engineering and technology 

industry leader. Predicting failures 

and anticipating customer needs are 

what this is all about.” 

– Taylor W. Lawrence 

Vice President 

Engineering, Technology 

and Mission Assurance 

Extending Equipment Life Can Impact 


One of the biggest challenges the 

Department of Defense (DoD) currently faces 

is how to extend system and equipment life, 

while increasing mission assurance. Too often 

electronic equipment failures occur during 

mission execution when equipment is under 

the most stress. This not only degrades mission 

assurance, but also stresses the logistics 

system that provides spare equipment, 

systems and platforms. Applying today’s 

after-the-failure detection methods have 

resulted in increased mission support costs 

and reduced mission assurance. 

Mitigating Failures Increases 


The solution to both extending equipment 

field life and increasing mission success is 

being provided by a DoD and industry 

initiative to predict equipment failures with 

enough time to effect repairs before they 

impact mission success, by using embedded 

prognostics. Currently, system designs do not 

have the capability to monitor the subtle, vital 

signs that are necessary for detecting incipient 

failures and predicting remaining useful 

life (RUL), as shown in Figure 1. Embedded 

prognostics would add this capability, 

enabling a proactive logistics system to 

operate, as shown in Figure 2. 

To exploit the embedded RUL technologies, 

the DoD can take advantage of advanced 


Prognostics and Health Management 

Enhancing Mission Assurance as Part of System Development 

War Planner 

4 

Equipment 

Diagnostics Report 

Health Mgmt. 

Center 

5 

URGENT 

Equipment 

Orders Placed 

3 

Mission Failed 

Report 

MISSION READINESS/SUCCESS DATA 

FIELD EQUIPMENT ORDERS 

FIELD DATA ANALYSIS 

Classified 

Network 

MISSION 

LOST 

Logistics EQUIPMENT DELIVERY 

6 

Equipment Delivered 

After Next Mission 

Future 

Prognostics 

Scenario 

2 

Day Old Equipment 

Failure Report 

ENCRYPTED FIELD REPORTS 

Scenario 

Existing 

Field 

Support 

Fielded 

Equipment 

1 

Equipment Fails 

Resulting in 

Mission Lost 

7 

Equipment Shortage 

Aborts Next Mission 

Figure 1. Conceptual view of an existing reactive logistics scenario. In existing failure-based 

logistics, the failures mostly occur during mission operation resulting in mission loss for that 

platform. This data is typically collected off the platform by a maintainer, entered into a 

maintenance terminal reported over a classified network to the war planners and health 

management center for evaluation. An urgent equipment order is placed with the logistics 

center and the parts and/or platforms are packaged, shipped and received by field support. 

However, because of this logistic delay cycle, the next mission fails because the equipment is 

not mission-ready in time. 

FIELD REPAIR 

networking architectures to collect and 

process the operational data from fielded 

systems. This requires platforms to collect 

RUL information from individual equipment, 

add additional platform-related data, encrypt 

it, and transmit the data through a secure 

network back to a prognostic and health 

management center (PHMC). There, it is 

processed into a real-time PHM common 

operational picture (COP). The PHM COP is 

critical for mission planners and logistic coordinators 

to mitigate pending equipment 

failures and measure mission readiness. 

World-Class Engineering 

Raytheon has responded to this challenge 

by applying its engineering knowledge, 

experience and discipline to provide comprehensive 

PHM solutions. 





There are three levels of PHM concurrently 

being developed by Raytheon: 

Embedded prognostic technologies 

Secure net-centric data communication 

and storage 

Health management data processing and 

control 

War Planner 

Health Mgmt. 

Center 

5 

Low Priority 

Equipment 

Orders Placed 

MISSION READINESS/SUCCESS DATA 

3 

Mission Success 

Report 

FIELD EQUIPMENT ORDERS 

Logistics 


4 

FIELD DATA ANALYSIS 

Equipment 

Remaining Useful 

Life (RUL) Report 

The Joint Strike Fighter program office defined 

health management concepts as follows: 

Classified 

Network 

2 

Pre-cursor to 

Failure Data 

Reported 

MISSION 

ASSURED 

EQUIPMENT DELIVERY 

6 

Equipment Delivered 

Before Next Mission 

Diagnostics: the process of determining 

the state of a component to perform its 

function(s) 

Prognostics: the predictive diagnostics, 

which include determining the remaining 

life or time span of proper operation of a 

component 

ENCRYPTED FIELD REPORTS 

Future 

Prognostics 

Scenario 

Field 

Support 

1 

Equipment 

Pre-cursor to Failure 

Data Detailed 

Fielded 

Equipment 

7 

Equipment 

Repaired 

Before Mission 

Figure 2. In a future prognostics-based mission support scenario the platform senses incipient 

failures, (failures in process) and equipment failures, and reports a predictive RUL. This 

precursor to failure information is automatically collected by the platform and securely 

networked back to the war planner and health management center without maintainer 

intervention. Low-priority equipment can then be replaced and shipped to the battlefield 

using normal logistics capabilities. Since the equipment is delivered before the platform fails 

and before the next mission, both missions are assured of failure-free operation. 

(2) Tank Needs 

Repair in 2 Days 

Mission 

Planner 

Prognostics Health 

Management Center 

(PHMC) Coordinator 

Healthy Mission 

Computer 

(3) Deploy 

to Front 

(1) MC has 2 

Days Remaining 

Useful Life 

(4) Pull Back 

Tomorrow 

FIELD REPAIR 

Healthy Mission Computers 

Sick Mission 

Computer 

(6) One Day Egress 

(5) One Day Ingress 

Figure 3. The PHM common operational picture provides the integrated capability to receive, 

correlate and display a complete system status, including planning applications and theatergenerated 

overlays and projections. 

Prognostics and Health Management 

Health management: The capability to 

make appropriate decisions about maintenance 

actions based on diagnostic/prognostics 

information, available resources 

and operational demand 

Raytheon recognizes that before mission 

planners and logisticians can mitigate incipient 

failures, new innovative precursor technologies 

and prognostic algorithms must be 

integrated into both existing and future 

products, and this involves all phases of 

product development. These precursor 

technologies include: 

Physics of failure (PoF) research 

Sensor design and signal conditioning 

development 

Prognostic reasoner algorithm development 

Prognostic and Health Management 

Capabilities Involve All Engineering 

Disciplines 

Prognostic development begins by investigating 

a product’s PoF mechanism for each of 

the product’s technologies (RF digital, power, 

mechanical, etc.), over all of the product’s 

operational environments (vibration, temperature, 

etc.). The PoF data is then integrated 

with available experimental field and factory 

data to create a technology-specific PoF 

model. Prognostic sensors are then integrated 

into the product to measure the predictive 

parameters specified by the PoF models. 

After integrating the technology PoF models 

into the overall product PoF model, prognostication 

algorithms are applied to predict the 

product’s RUL. If necessary, new sensors are 

added, or removed, depending on product 

models. All aspects of the prognostic design 

are made to be programmable to facilitate 

prognostic maturation throughout the product’s 

life cycle. 

Robust Embedded Test Architecture 

Raytheon also developed a real-time robust 

embedded test architecture (RET-A) that standardizes 

the execution and reporting of 

embedded diagnostics and prognostics features 

and provides a standard product to test 

equipment interfaces. RET-A enables efficient 

integration of specific PHM technologies and 

provides the framework to reuse designs that 

leverage companywide embedded prognostic 

solutions across multiple products.

PHM Conceptual Overview 

Prognostics 

Sensor Design 

Prognostics Models 

and Thresholds 

Analysis 

Unit 

Reasoner Remaining 

Useful Life (RUL) 

Algorithm Development 

Sensors 

Collaboration and Leadership 

Prognostics – 

Temp-Time-Vib-Humidity Models 

Voltage 

Controls 

To leverage investments and reduce stovepipe 

developments, Raytheon established the 

Mission Support Enterprise Campaign, PHM 

Steering Committee and PHM Technical 

Interest Group that together provide a One 

Raytheon approach to developing PHM solutions 

internally, as well as with industry, academia 

and our DoD customers. Assuming a 

leadership role, Raytheon is also partnering 

with universities, industry partners, trade 

associations and small businesses. Innovative 

solutions learned from these associations are 

also being integrated into Raytheon products. 

Disruptive Technology 

PHM is a disruptive technology that is dramatically 

changing how Raytheon develops, 

tests, manufactures and deploys products. 

New engineering processes and tools are 

being developed for each engineering discipline 

to enable PHM techniques to be developed 

and reused across Raytheon independent 

research and development programs. 

tb t1 t2 

Time 

Physics of Failure (PoF) Analysis 

for Product Environment is used 

to define Reasoner Algorithm 

Sensor 

Conditioners 

One of the cornerstones that make Raytheon 

a world-class engineering company is the 

adherence to, and evolution of, the Raytheon 

Integrated Product Development System. 

Tp1 

Robust 

Embedded 

Test Ref 

Arch 


Engineering Physics of 

Failure (PoF) Analysis 

PoF Models and 

Thresholds 

RUL Models and 

Reasoner Controls 

Reasoner 

Remaining Useful 

Life Reasoner Design 

Engineering Development 

Design and Analysis Data 

Embedded Solutions 

RUL 

Remaining 

Useful 

Life 

Figure 4. A deployed PHM standard will improve our competitive postion. 

PHM Systems 

and Software 

Architecture 

Design 

Remaining 

Useful Life 

Prediction 

As a disruptive technology, PHM is being 

deployed throughout all phases of product 

development, including: 

Internal research and development 

Mission Assurance and Mission Support 

architectures and applications 

System architectures 

Product architectures 

Design and development 

Production testing 

Field testing 

Warranty contracts 

The development and integration of prognostics 

and health management technologies 

will provide NoDoubt Mission Assurance 

for the warfighters who depend on 

Raytheon’s systems to work the first time, 

and every time. In addition, it is an area of 

development that will provide a competitive 

advantage that will differentiate Raytheon 

from other companies in our markets. 

John P. Bergeron 

john_ p_ bergeron@raytheon.com 

Contributor: Brad Schupp 


John P. Bergeron 

Director, Whole 

Life Engineering 

Raytheon Integrated 

Defense Systems 

After spending the 

first six years of his 

career in design and 

engineering, John 

Bergeron went to the 

field for installation 

and operation of one 

of the products he 

worked on. That’s when he discovered his 

enjoyment of the hands-on aspect of engineering 

from the end-user’s perspective. From 

then on, his career focused on after-shipment 

services and long-term sustainment. 

“Following a product that I designed to the 

field made a big difference to me,” Bergeron 

said. “I encourage all engineers to spend 

some time in the field. It gives you a different 

perspective. You see how your design 

changes affect the customer when they are 

looking over your shoulder and asking, ‘does 

it work yet?’” 

One of the biggest challenges of Bergeron’s 

job is ensuring that the design engineers 

understand the importance of product 

serviceability for the life of the product. It 

helps, Bergeron said, that “the technology 

Raytheon delivers is excellent, and I work 

with really smart people.” Still, he added, 

“I think we could do a better job leveraging 

long-term service contracts for our 

products by designing the ‘hooks and 

handles’ in them.” 

Bergeron believes that an important thing 

to remember about working with others is, 

“Everyone deserves honest and candid 

feedback,” he said. “The best performance 

review I ever received was also the 

toughest, but I appreciated it.” 

Reflecting on what about his job excites him, 

he said, “The endless opportunities. I just 

wish we could do more, faster.” And what 

keeps him up at night? “What I don’t 

know — and my 18-month-old daughter.” 


U.S. Patents 

Issued to Raytheon 

At Raytheon, we encourage people to 

work on technological challenges that keep 

America strong and develop innovative 

commercial products. Part of that process 

is identifying and protecting our intellectual 

property. Once again, the U.S. Patent 

Office has recognized our engineers and 

technologists for their contributions in 

their fields of interest. We compliment our 

inventors who were awarded patents from 

December 2007 through February 2008. 

EMMET R. ANDERSON 

DAVID G. ANTHONY 

DANIEL W. BRUNTON 

DAVID G. GARRETT 

DANIEL C. HARRISON 

JIM R. HICKS 

DAVID J. KNAPP 

JAMES P. MILLS 

FRANK E. SMITH III 

WAYNE L. SUNNE 

7304296 Optical fiber assembly wrapped across 

gimbal axes 

JONATHAN J. LYNCH 

7304617 Millimeter-wave transreflector and system for 

generating a collimated coherent wavefront 

FRANK N. CHEUNG 

ROBERT J. CODA 

7304675 Digital timing rate buffering for 

thermal stability of uncooled detectors 

ROBERT S. BROWN 

7305655 Vertical requirements development 

system and method 

RALPH E. HUDSON 

JOHN P. KILKELLY 

JON H. SHERMAN 

HELEN L. SUN 

7307580 Non-statistical method for compressing and 

decompressing complex sar data 

RICHARD G. HOFFMAN 

7307701 Method and apparatus for detecting 

a moving projectile 

ROBERT H. HEIL 

7308016 System and method for securing signals 

CHUNGTE W. CHEN 

7308207 Method for identifying an interrogated object 

using a dynamic optical tag identification system 

MICHAEL C. BAILEY 

DAVID VAN LUE 

7308761 Integrated getter structure and 

method for its preparation and use 

STEPHEN C. JACOBSEN 

MICHAEL G. MORRISON 

SHANE OLSEN 

7308848 Pressure control valve having intrinsic 

feedback system 


RICHARD J. KOENIG 

JAR J. LEE 

STAN W. LIVINGSTON 

7315288 Antenna arrays using long slot 

apertures and balanced feeds 

KENNETH J. MCPHILLIPS 

ARNOLD W. NOVICK 

7315488 Methods and systems for passive range and 

depth localization 

ROBERT D. SLATER 

7315805 Operations and support discrete 

event simulation system and method 

W T CAREY 

BARBARA E. PAUPLIS 

EDWARD A. SEGHEZZI 

7317427 Adaptive array 

JASON W. INGRAM 

7319590 Conductive heat transfer system and method 

for integrated circuits 

MICHAEL K. BURKLAND 

DAVID B. HATFIELD 

ELAINE E. SEASLY 

7319942 Molecular containment film modeling tool 

STEVEN J. MANSON 

7321364 Automated translation of high order complex 

geometry from a CAD model into a surface based 

combinatorial geometry format 

CLIFTON QUAN 

STEPHEN M. SCHILLER 

YANMIN ZHANG 

7324060 Power divider having unequal power division 

and antenna array feed network using such unequal 

power dividers 

MARWAN KRUNZ 

PHILLIP I. ROSENGARD 

7324522 Encapsulating packets into a frame for 

a network 

MILTON BIRNBAUM 

KALIN SPARIOSU 

7324568 Modulated saturable absorber 

controlled laser 

CORNELL DRENTEA 

7324797 Bragg-cell application to high 

probability of intercept receiver 

VINH N. ADAMS 

PAOLO BARBANO 

WESLEY H. DWELLY 

DENNIS HEALY 

7327307 Radar system with adaptive waveform 

processing and methods for adaptively controlling the 

shape of a radar ambiguity function 

BRIAN L. BALL 

CHRISTIAN O. HEMMI 

MARC H. MCCULLOUGH 

7327313 Two-dimensional quantization method for array 

beam scanning 

JOHN N. CARBONE 

SUSANNAH R. CAMPBELL 

RICHARD J. ERNST 

JEFFREY D. LEWIS 

CARL A. POINDEXTER 

RICK D. SCOGGINS 

ANDREW L. URQUHART 

7328219 System and method for processing 

electronic data from multiple data sources 

DUKE QUACH 

7331795 Spring probe-compliant pin connector 

KAPRIEL V. KRIKORIAN 

ROBERT A. ROSEN 

7333049 Novel waveform ambiguity optimization for 

bistatic radar operation 

STEPHEN C. JACOBSEN 

7333699 Ultra-high density connector 

THOMAS K. DOUGHERTY 

JOHN J. DRAB 

KATHLEEN A. KEHLE 

7335552 Improved electrode for thin film 

capacitor devices 

ROBERTO W. ALM 

7335931 Monolithic microwave integrated 

circuit compatible fet structure 

JAR J. LEE 

STAN W. LIVINGSTON 

CLIFTON QUAN 

7336232 Dual band space-fed array 

ROBERT R. GROSS 

7336473 Single-path electrical device and 

methods for conveying electrical charge 

STEVEN J. MANSON 

7337154 Method for solving the binary 

minimization problem and a variant thereof

International 

Patents Issued to Raytheon 

Congratulations to Raytheon technologists 

from all over the world. We would like to 

acknowledge international patents issued 

from October 2007 through February 2008. 

These inventors are responsible for keeping 

the company on the cutting edge, and we 

salute their innovation and contributions. 

Titles are those on the U.S.-filed patents; 

actual titles on foreign counterparts are 

sometimes modified and not recorded. 

While we strive to list current international 

patents, many foreign patents issue much 

later than the corresponding U.S. patents 

and may not yet be reflected. 

AUSTRALIA 

FERNANDO BELTRAN 

JOSEPH P. BIONDI 

RONNI J. CAVENER 

ROBERT V. CUMMINGS 

JAMES M. MCGUINNIS 

THOMAS V. SIKINA 

KEITH D. TROTT 

ERDEN A. YURTERI 

2004302158 Wideband phased array radiator 

CANADA 

ROBERT S. BECKER 

KELLY D. MCHENRY 

FREDERICK J. WAGENER 

2402415 Projectile for the destruction of large 

explosive targets 

RICHARD M. LLOYD 

2503370 Kinetic energy rod warhead with isotropic 

firing of the projectiles 

CHINA 

THOMAS W. MILLER 

CHRISTOPHER W. REED 

02818160.3 System and method for subband beamforming 

using adaptive weight normalization 

DENMARK, FRANCE, GERMANY, 

NETHERLANDS, SPAIN, SWEDEN 

ROBERT C. ALLISON 

BRIAN M. PIERCE 

SAMUEL D. TONOMURA 

1561243 Highly adaptable heterogeneous power 

amplifier IC micro-systems using flip chip and microelectromechanical 

technologies on low loss substrates 

FRANCE, GERMANY, GREAT BRITAIN 

ALBERT EZEKIEL 

QUOC H. PHAM 

1127281 Target acquisition system and radon transform 

based method for target azimuth aspect estimation 

MARK E. KUSBEL 

GARY SALVAIL 

CHAD M. WANGSVICK 

1461576 Isolating signal divider/combiner and method 

of combining signals of first and second frequencies 

EDWARD L. ARNN 

ROBERT W. BYREN 

1483548 Efficient multiple emitter boresight 

reference source 

KENNETH W. BROWN 

JAMES R. GALLIVAN 

1676463 Selective layer millimeter-wave 

surface-heated system and method 

FRANCE, GERMANY, GREAT BRITAIN, 

ITALY, NETHERLANDS, SPAIN 

MICHAEL J. DELCHECCOLO 

DELBERT E. LIPPERT 

MARK E. RUSSELL 

HBARTELD B. VANREES 

WALTER G. WOODINGTON 

1468250 Docking information system for boats 

FRANCE, GERMANY, GREAT BRITAIN, 

ITALY, SPAIN 

MARK B. HANNA 

KYLE W. NIX 

1446941 Method and apparatus for making a lid 

with an optically transmissive window 

RICHARD M. WEBER 

WILLIAM G. WYATT 

1627192 Method and apparatus for extracting 

non-condensable gases in a cooling system 

BRIAN L. BALL 

CHRISTIAN O. HEMMI 

MARC H. MCCULLOUGH 

1659658 Two-dimensional quantization method for 

array beam scanning 

GREAT BRITAIN 

ROGER BALL 

2420867 Sighting device with multifunction 

illuminated reticle structure 

ISRAEL 

DOUGLAS M. KAVNER 

156674 System and method for reading license plates 

JAPAN 

MICHAEL RAY 

4053978 Advanced high-speed, multi-level uncooled 

bolometer and method for fabricating same 

BORIS S. JACOBSON 

4056391 Multi-phase transformer system 

MEXICO 

CARL E. MCGAHA 

250965 Method and system for electrical length matching 

RUSSIA 

GARY G. DEEL 

2309484 Solar array concentrator system and method 

STEPHEN E. BENNETT 

CHRIS E. GESWENDER 

KEVIN R. GREENWOOD 

2315943 Boot mechanism for complex projectile 

base survival 

SINGAPORE 

GEORGE A. BLAHA 

CHRIS E. GESWENDER 

SHAWN B. HARLINE 

114917 Missile with odd symmetry tail fins 

DOUGLAS W. ANDERSON 

JOSEPH F. BORCHARD 

WILLIAM H. WELLMAN 

116343 Monolithic lens/reflector optical component 

ROBERT F. ANTONELLI 

DAVID W. HARPER 

DENNIS M. PAPE 

WAYNE L. REED 

RICHARD W. SEEMAN 

119760 Loading system for securing cargo in the 

bed of a vehicle 

PERRY MACDONALD 

123975 Low-profile circulator 

SOUTH KOREA 

KENNETH W. BROWN 

THOMAS A. DRAKE 

123975 Common aperture reflector antenna with 

improved feed design 


THOMAS W. FRENCH 

DELBERT E. LIPPERT 

JOSEPH S. PLEVA 




767543 Switched beam antenna architecture 


JOHN M. FIRDA 

MARK E. RUSSEL 

776860 Path prediction system and method 


JAMES T. HANSON 

JOSEPH S. PLEVA 




776868 Video amplifier for a radar receiver 

ALDON L. BREGANTE 

RAO S. RAVURI 


778216 Sensor system and method for sensing in an 

elevated-temperature environment, with protection 

against external heating 

SHARON A. ELSWORTH 

WILLIAM H. FOSSEY JR 

783226 High strength fabric structure and seam 

therefor with uniform thickness and a method of 

making same 

PERRY MACDONALD 

785218 Low-profile circulator 

TAIWAN 

SHANNON V. DAVIDSON 

ROBERT J. PETERSON 

I287713 System and method for computer cluster 

virtualization using dynamic boot images and virtual 

disk 

ELI BROOKNER 

I289680 Efficient technique for estimating elevation 

angle when using a broad beam for search in a radar 

TURKEY 

MARY D. ONEILL 


2002 00956 Multicolor staring missile sensor system 

Raytheon’s Intellectual Property is 

valuable. If you become aware of any 

entity that may be using any of 

Raytheon’s patented inventions or would 

like to license our patented inventions, 

please contact your Raytheon IP counsel: 

Leonard A. Alkov (SAS) , Horace St. Julian 

(MS & RTSC) , Robin R. Loporchio (NCS) 

Edward S. Roman (IDS), John J. Snyder (IIS). 


Copyright © 2008 Raytheon Company. All rights reserved. 

Approved for public release. Printed in the USA. 

Customer Success Is Our Mission is a registered trademark of Raytheon Company. 

Raytheon Six Sigma, MathMovesU and NoDoubt are trademarks of Raytheon Company. 

MATHCOUNTS is a registered trademark of the MATHCOUNTS Foundation. 

Capability Maturity Model, CMM and CMMI are registered in the U.S. Patent and 

Trademark Office by Carnegie Mellon University.

Technology Today issue 1 2008 - Raytheon

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