STTR Phase I: Antenna Based Infrared Imagers

这个小企业技术转让（STTR）第一阶段研究项目将开发具有改进性能的非制冷天线耦合微测辐射热计红外传感器。天线耦合通过天线几何形状的简单改变在设计波长、带宽和极化响应方面提供了极大的灵活性。天线耦合测辐射热计的现有设计迫使天线馈电点阻抗和测辐射热计材料响应度之间的折衷，导致次优性能。该项目将展示一种新颖的设计，可以独立优化天线阻抗和测辐射热计响应度。单天线耦合的微测辐射热计像素与改进的性能将被制造用于定量测量的噪声和探测率。减少像素质量与天线设计将提供更快的操作速度和更好的灵敏度。如果成功的话，所提出的努力，使改进的基于天线的红外传感器将提供一个显着的进步，在现有技术的灵敏度和响应时间方面。这将对非制冷红外成像的现有应用产生巨大影响，但更重要的是，它将实现从医学和家庭安全到科学测量等领域目前不可能实现的新功能和应用。该项目的成功将吸引广泛的高科技行业的巨大兴趣。该公司与中央佛罗里达大学的合作将确保本科生和研究生参与开发和发表重大成果。工业和大学合作伙伴之间的密切合作将为学生提供对工业研究和开发要求的宝贵见解。

This Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) Phase I research project will develop uncooled antenna coupled microbolometer infrared sensors with improved performance. Antenna coupling provides great flexibility in designing the wavelength, band width, and polarization response through simple changes in antenna geometry. Prior designs for antenna coupled bolometers forced tradeoffs between the antenna feed point impedance and the bolometer material responsivity, resulting in sub optimal performance. This project will demonstrate a novel design that allows independent optimization of the antenna impedance and bolometer responsivity. Single antenna coupled microbolometer pixels with improved performance will be fabricated for quantitative measurement of the noise and detectivity. Reduced pixel mass with antenna designs will give faster operating speeds and better sensitivity. If successful, the proposed effort to make improved antenna based infrared sensors will provide a significant advancement in the state of the art in terms of sensitivity and response time. This would have a tremendous impact on existing applications in uncooled infrared imaging, but more importantly, it would enable new functionalities and applications that are not presently possible in fields from medicine and domestic security to scientific measurements. Success with this project will attract tremendous interest across a broad range of high tech industries. The company's collaboration with the University of Central Florida will ensure the involvement of undergraduate and graduate students in the development and the publication of significant results. Close collaboration between the industrial and university partners will provide the students with valuable insight into the requirements of industrial research and development.