Cooled IR detector reduces weight
A
Sofradir product story
Edited by the Engineeringtalk editorial team
Jun 13, 2008
Epsilon offers the type of identification and detection performance advantages that only cooled IR detectors can bring.
Sofradir has launched the industry's most compact cooled 15um-pitch half-TV-format mid-wave infra-red (MWIR) detector.
The new IR detector, Epsilon, responds to end users' needs for lighter and more compact equipment.
Epsilon applications include military-grade handheld systems, such as night vision goggles and small unmanned aerial vehicles.
Defence manufacturers see weight reduction in these applications as important to minimising operator fatigue in IR goggles and enabling smaller UAVs to carry payload with cooled IR detectors.
For end-users, in addition to meeting lightweight requirements, Epsilon gives them the type of identification and detection performance advantages that only cooled IR detectors can bring.
For system integrators, Epsilon's low power consumption, compactness and compatibility with very small batteries and small optics, can help them to simplify the design of new systems.
Epsilon is roughly half the size and weight of other mid-wave half-TV-format IR detectors.
Its 15um pixel size is compatible with small IR optics, the key feature that allows system integrators to bring additional reductions in size and weight.
"We are continuing to fulfil our promise to customers by providing the best in IR systems, so that they can build lighter and even more energy-efficient equipment", says Philippe Bensussan, Chairman and CEO at Sofradir.
"We were the first to introduce the now standard 15um-pitch IR detector and with several hundred of those successfully delivered, we are the most experienced supplier in this market".
Minimising power consumption has been the underpinning concept in Epsilon's design, which Sofradir has achieved using new advanced technologies and a very small cryogenic cooler.
With power consumption at a mere 2W, roughly half of what standard cooled MWIR formats offer and close to what is required by microbolometers (an IR detector that does not need cooling), end users benefit by being able to double the life of current batteries or use smaller batteries to further reduce weight.
Epsilon is the latest product to join Sofradir's compact 15um-pitch MWIR detector portfolio.
MCT technology in MWIR has demonstrated that it is the most successful approach for achieving small pixel pitch.
The other products include Scorpio (640 x 512), and Jupiter (1280 x 1024), a top-of-the-line megapixel high definition TV-compatible large format array.
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