Contract extends dual-spectrum camera development

A Goodrich Optical and Space Systems product story

Edited by the Engineeringtalk editorial team Oct 29, 2004

Sensors Unlimited has recieved a new USAF contract to research and design a communication device that can be added to its proprietary dual-spectrum camera.

Sensors Unlimited has recieved a new USAF contract to research and design a communication device that can be added to its proprietary dual-spectrum camera.

The company recently announced a new dual-wavelength visible-InGaAs (indium gallium arsenide) MiniCamera currently in use by the Department of Defense.

The R and D contract will build on this dual-spectrum InGaAs technology that allows simultaneous imaging in two wavebands, visible and short-wave infra-red (SWIR).

The high resolution focal plane array (FPA) images using light from 400 to 1700nm without distinguishing between the various wavelengths, producing a single, combined visible/SWIR image.

The uncooled visible-InGaAs MiniCamera has no moving parts, is lightweight, compact and perfectly suited for helmet-mounted applications like imaging and communications.

The US Air Force has awarded the new contract to develop an improved solid-state, thermoelectrically temperature-stabilised dual-spectrum imager that doubles as a communication device.

Three objectives under this R and D contract will be: to improve sensitivity in the visible waveband; to enable the camera to also function as a 1GHz communication link by using a single pixel in the camera1s detector array; and to reduce pixel pitch from the camera's current 40um pitch down to 15um.

Although the contract parameters required a 25 x 25 pixel array, Sensors Unlimited will deliver a much higher resolution 128 x 128 pixel FPA and the camera electronics to run the enhanced array.

These improvements will expand current night vision technology to foster a smarter, multifunction dual-wavelength video camera/communication tool.

According to Tara Martin, Research Engineer and Project Director for the $750,000 (Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) grant: "This contract underscores the military's heightened interest in InGaAs SWIR technology".

She continues: "The InGaAs platform makes possible an intrinsically smaller, lighter, more robust and more economical dual spectrum camera that sees all eye-safe military laser illuminators, designators and now communication lasers".