RELIABILITY AND QUALIFICATION METHODOLOGY OF 60 W QCW LINEAR BAR ARRAYS

The results reported in this publication are related to the qualificat ion of a pilot line at THOMSON-CSF/TCS for the fabrication of 60 W QCW linear bar arrays. This 2-year program supported by the French MoD ha s been supervised by the Direction de la Recherche et de la Technologi e (DRET/TCE) and the Centre d'Electronique de I'Armement (CELAR). The qualification has been conducted in order to fulfil several criteria: demonstration over several batches of the repeatability of performance s for linear bar arrays with: COD (Catastrophic Optical Damage) greate r than or equal to 90 W QCW, efficiency greater than or equal to 40% a t 60 W, and slope efficiency greater than or equal to 1 W/A; storage t ests (-40 degrees C, +80 degrees C); ageing tests at 20 and 50 degrees C and reliability assessments. This paper aims to present the methodo logy used for the qualification and reliability study, and compares it with published results. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights res erved.