SBIR Phase I: A novel SWIR/MWIR monolithic electro-optical sensor for manportable applications for day/night surveillance

该奖项是根据2009年美国复苏和再投资法案(公法111-5)资助的。这个小型企业创新研究(SBIR)第一阶段项目旨在开发一种用于便携式监控应用的新型光电昼夜视觉传感器。所提出的固态成像仪由一个单片焦平面阵列和一个可探测中波红外(即热)和SWIR辐射的吸收体组成。这就需要发展一种在低暗电流的InP衬底上生长的InGaAs/GaAsSb量子阱超晶格结构的第二类半导体吸收材料。该器件的加工将使用该公司建立的基于InGaAs/InP的光电二极管阵列技术平台。该项目更广泛的影响/商业潜力将是一种多光谱成像仪，它将通过增加中波红外热探测功能来增强传统的SWIR成像能力(微光识别、近红外激光成像、透过玻璃和大气遮光剂成像)。与为每个波长波段配备专用传感器的融合成像系统相比，使用单焦平面阵列将显著降低成本、系统尺寸和重量，并将消耗更少的功率。为这个项目开发的成像仪只需要适度的冷却(~250K)，使用固态热电冷却器，减少了成像仪的尺寸、重量和功率，使之能够便携应用。伴随着这些改进，成本的降低使许多商业应用成为可能，例如周边安全、执法、边境和国土安全以及消防。在其他商业市场，应用包括高分辨率分子光谱、痕量气体监测、空气污染分析、风切变测量、非侵入性和医疗诊断。军事应用包括目标识别和检测、激光指定检测、被动和主动夜视、红外热传感器、无人机和飞艇的长距离侦察和监视、头盔式夜视系统和遥感。

"This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5)."This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project seeks to develop a novel electro-optical day/night vision sensor for man-portable surveillance applications. The proposed solid-state imager comprises of a monolithic focal plane array with an absorber that can detect mid-wave infrared (i.e., thermal) and SWIR radiation. This concept will require the development of a type-II semiconductor absorber material of InGaAs/GaAsSb quantum wells superlattice structures grown on InP substrates with low dark current. The processing of the device will use the company's established InGaAs/InP-based photodiode array technology platform. The combination of excellent epitaxial growth and low dark current processing technology is anticipated to yield a high sensitivity imager.The broader impacts/commercial potential of this project will be a multi-spectral imager that will augment conventional SWIR imaging capability (low light level identification, imaging of near-infrared lasers, imaging through glass and atmospheric obscurants) by adding MWIR thermal detection capability. The use of a single focal plane array will drastically reduce cost, system size, and weight and will consume less power compared to fused imaging systems with dedicated sensors for each wavelength band. The imager developed for this project would require only modest cooling (~250K) using solid-state thermoelectric coolers reducing size weight and power of the imager enabling man-portable applications. Along with these improvements, the reduction in cost enables many commercial applications such as perimeter security, law enforcement, border and homeland security, and fire fighting. In other commercial markets, applications include high-resolution molecular spectroscopy, trace gas monitoring, air pollution analysis, wind shear measurement, non-invasive and medical diagnostics. Military applications include target identification and detection, laser designation detection, passive and active night vision, infrared thermal sensors, long stand-off reconnaissance and surveillance from UAVs and airships, helmet mounted night vision systems and remote sensing.