SBIR Phase I: Rectenna Based Broad Band Infrared Camera

这个小型企业创新研究(SBIR)第一阶段项目旨在开发一种使用微型天线和金属-绝缘体-金属(MIM)整流器的高速非致冷室温红外(IR)成像的新技术和设备。这些天线整流器结构被称为整流管，将被建造成将红外频率的电磁波转换为与红外辐射强度成正比的直流电。这项技术将为高速红外成像铺平道路，这是目前常用的测辐射热计无法实现的。这种方法还将实现高分辨率的红外成像，而不需要像目前红外光电探测器所要求的那样对探测器进行冷却，此外，通过这种SBIR，包含这些整流元件的大尺寸像素阵列将在红外频率下被设计和测试。为了指导设计过程，将在数十到数百GHz范围内工作的印刷电路板和集成电路上建造成规模的原型。对这些规模化原型的测试和建模将指导能够在THz范围内工作的整流管阵列的制造。最后，将设计读出电路来扫描整流阵列，并将输出转换为红外强度级。该项目的广泛影响/商业潜力将直接影响红外(IR)成像技术的范围，并可能使其成为类似可见光数码相机的主流。有限冷却的红外摄像机具有明显的优势，包括消除了耗电的冷却系统；减小了尺寸、重量和成本；以及更高的可靠性(延长了使用寿命和平均故障时间)。近室温红外相机技术具有广泛的潜在应用，包括战场传感器、监视、海洋视觉、消防设备、手持成像仪、头盔瞄准具等军事应用。该技术还在热成像、过程控制、成像干涉测量、激光技术、长波光通信、气体分析仪等领域有着广泛的民用应用。一个特别有吸引力的大市场将出现在汽车行业，作为夜间驾驶和能见度有限的环境中的辅助工具。卫星上的红外相机正越来越多地被用于绘制地球上的资源地图。利用纳米压印技术制作的大尺寸红外焦平面阵列将提高星载相机的空间分辨率。

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project seeks to develop a novel technique and device for high-speed uncooled room-temperature infrared (IR) imaging using micro-antennas and Metal-Insulator-Metal (MIM) rectifiers. These antenna-rectifier structures, called rectennas, will be built to convert electromagnetic waves at infrared frequencies to direct current proportional to infrared radiation intensity. This technology will pave the way for high-speed IR imaging which is currently unachievable by commonly used bolometers. This method will also achieve high-resolution IR imaging without cooling the detectors as is currently required by IR photo-detectors, Furthermore, through this SBIR, large size pixel arrays containing these rectenna elements will be designed and tested at infrared frequencies. To direct the design process, scaled prototypes on PCBs and integrated circuits that operate in the tens to hundreds of GHz range will be built. Testing and modeling of these scaled prototypes will then guide fabrication of arrays of rectennas that can operate in the THz range. Finally, readout circuits will be designed that scan the rectenna array and convert output to an IR intensity level. The scaled prototype results will be used in Phase II to implement the IR rectenna imager with readout circuitry.The broader impact/commercial potential of this project will directly affect the scope of infrared (IR) imaging technology, and possibly bring it into the mainstream similar to the visible light digital cameras. IR cameras with limited cooling have obvious advantages, including the elimination of power-consuming cooling systems; a reduction in size, weight, and cost; and greater reliability (an increase in the useful life and mean time to failure). The number of applications potentially affected by near room temperature IR camera technology is widespread, including military applications such as battlefield sensors, surveillance, marine vision, firefighting devices, hand-held imagers, helmet-mounted sights, etc. This technology also has widespread civilian applications in areas such as thermography, process control, imaging interferometry, laser technology, long-wavelength optical communication, gas analyzers, and many others. An especially attractive large market will be in the automobile industry as an aid for driving at night and in limited visibility environments. Infrared cameras on satellites are being increasingly used for mapping resources on earth. A large sized rectenna based infrared focal plane array that can be fabricated using nanoimprinting would increase the spatial resolution of satellite based cameras.