Short-wave imager helps UAV to see in the dark

A Goodrich Optical and Space Systems product story

Edited by the Engineeringtalk editorial team Aug 28, 2008

The SU640KTSX short-wave IR imager can be easily integrated into large or small systems, making it suitable for handheld, helmet mounted, mobile or aerial SWIR imaging applications.

The ultracompact high-sensitivity SU640KTSX indium gallium arsenide (InGaAs) short-wave infra-red (SWIR) camera from Sensors Unlimited has been successfully flight-tested on the ScanEagle unmanned aircraft at the Fort Leonard Wood test range in Missouri.

The InGaAs-SWIR imager requires no cooling; it is lightweight (less than 90g) and uses low power (less than 2.5W at 20C), making it ideal for unmanned flight imaging requirements.

Ed Hart, General Manager of Goodrich's Sensors Unlimited Princeton, NJ team, notes: "We are proud to be part of this successful flight test with The Boeing Company and Insitu".

He adds: "The ability to image through many atmospheric obscurants like fog, haze or rain during daytime or nighttime makes our short-wave InGaAs high sensitivity camera especially useful for unmanned aircraft for maritime intelligence and surveillance".

"Our room-temperature operation InGaAs-SWIR cameras are lighter weight and consume less power than competing short-wave infra-red germanium-based cameras and mid- or long-wave infra-red imagers which generally require heavy and expensive cooling systems".

The 640 x 512 pixel solid-state camera, with onboard nonuniformity corrections, captures full-sized images at 30 frames per second.

The camera's focal plane array features a 25um pitch with a wavelength response over the short-wave infra-red spectrum from 0.9 to 1.7um.

This model is also available with Sensors Unlimited's new NIR/SWIR extended wavelength response from 0.7 to 1.7um.

The SU640KTSX can be easily integrated into large or small systems, making it suitable for handheld, helmet mounted, mobile or aerial SWIR imaging applications.

Because InGaAs night vision (NV) technology detects reflected light, unlike today's small thermal NV cameras that detect heat signatures, Goodrich's compact NIR/SWIR camera provides exceptional identification clarity over a wide range of day and night illumination levels.