STTR Phase I: Antenna Based Infrared Imagers

这项小型企业技术转移（STTR）第一阶段研究项目将开发具有改进性能的非冷却天线耦合微辐射热计红外传感器。天线耦合通过简单地改变天线的几何形状，在设计波长、频带宽度和极化响应方面提供了很大的灵活性。先前的天线耦合辐射热计设计强迫在天线馈电点阻抗和辐射热计材料响应性之间进行权衡，导致性能欠佳。该项目将展示一种新颖的设计，允许独立优化天线阻抗和辐射热计响应性。将制作性能改进的单天线耦合微辐射热计像素，用于噪声和探测性的定量测量。减少天线设计的像素质量将提供更快的操作速度和更好的灵敏度。如果成功，提出的改进天线红外传感器的努力将在灵敏度和响应时间方面提供一个显着的进步。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、国内安全到科学测量等领域目前无法实现的新功能和应用。这个项目的成功将吸引广泛的高科技行业的巨大兴趣。该公司与中佛罗里达大学的合作将确保本科生和研究生参与重大成果的开发和发表。工业界和大学之间的密切合作将为学生提供对工业研究和发展需求的宝贵见解。

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.