Wireless energy and data transfer to munitions using high power laser diodes

In time critical power up applications, such as pre-launch preparation of smart munitions, both power and guidance information needs to be transferred rapidly from the host to the munitions. Tethered solutions are not practical and the existing magnetic inductive charging methods are slow and have limited data transfer rate capability. A wireless solution based on the use of high power laser diodes is presented. Custom dual-junction photo-voltaic cells achieve power conversion efficiencies exceeding 50% at a single wavelength of operation. Energy transfer times of 3.5 s have been achieved for energy levels of 90 J. Guidance and other control data is uploaded to on-board memory devices at a rate of 500 kb/s, through the use of an additional photodiode, which can receive a small fraction of the modulated power beam. A removable collar provides an alignment free charging/data solution enabling rapid deployment of multiple munitions.