Holographic gunsights for small arms

Holographic gunsights were first demonstrated in the mid 1970s by researchers at the Environmental Research Institute of Michigan (ERIM) under contracts with the Air Force and the Army. The sights utilized He-Ne gas lasers and were designed for use with large weapons systems. With the advent of low cost visible laser diode, ERIM formed a new company, EOTech, to develop, manufacture and market a holographic gun sight for small arms. A hologram is used to reconstruct the image of a reticle pattern that appears at the target plane. Unlike red-dot sights, virtually any reticle pattern, 2D or 3D, can be formed. The design challenges include an opto-mechanical package that is compact, light weight and low cost which can withstand recoils up to 4,000 Gs and provide fine elevation/windage pointing adjustments, and optics that are aberration-free and stable over a wide temperature range. Manufacturing challenges include the mass production of high quality holographic optics at low cost and the precision alignment of the very low f/number optics.