SBIR Phase I: Ultra-low cost Long Wavelength Infra-Red Imaging Camera

小型企业创新研究(SBIR)第一阶段项目的更广泛影响/商业潜力是使热成像解决方案能够应用于多种日常应用。更具体地说，该项目将使物联网(IoT)生态系统能够访问热成像，这将推动公共安全、先进的健康监测以及能源和节水方面的进步，所有这些都将进一步推动经济发展。长波红外线(LWIR)辐射通过灰尘、烟雾和雾等常见遮光物传播，因此热像仪可以在恶劣条件下提高交通安全。例如，安装在汽车或铁路沿线的摄像头将通过帮助防止碰撞来保护车辆乘员和行人。同样的好处也将改善警察、消防员和急救人员的安全和效率。最后，远程监控摄像头将增加老年人和高医疗风险个人的独立性，同时尊重他们的隐私，因为LWIR图像保持了对象的匿名性。最后，配备热成像的智能家电可以根据入住率检测来调节照明和暖通空调交付，以减少住宅和商业的能源消耗。在农业中，热成像可以与数据处理相结合，以节约用水并更有效地指导杀虫剂和化肥的使用。这一小型企业创新研究(SBIR)第一阶段项目有可能推动微制造、长波红外线(LWIR)光学、晶片级相机组装和缩小外形系数热成像相机等领域的知识前沿。LWIR透镜技术利用半导体和MEMS/MOEMS行业的先进技术，实现了前所未有的透镜拓扑。该项目追求的透镜技术将取代制造成本高且体积大的传统锗或硫化物玻璃透镜。独特的透镜设计和制造方法进一步实现了晶圆级封装(WLP)和晶片级光学(WLO)，通过首次允许在晶圆级而不是在单个芯片级将透镜组装到热成像阵列上，从而扩展了最先进的技术，从而显著降低了成本、尺寸和重量。这项研究将涉及镜头的设计和制造，镜头组装到热成像阵列上，最后是相机性能的测试和基准测试。最后，本项目通过开发自定义预测模型来推动介电超材料的研究和应用，该模型可用于将时域有限差分(FDTD)模拟作为传统光线跟踪光学设计软件的输入。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project is to enable thermal imaging solutions across a multitude of everyday applications. More specifically, this project will make thermal imaging accessible to the Internet of Things (IoT) ecosystem, which will spur advancements in public safety, advanced health monitoring, and energy and water conservation, all of which will further drive economic development. Long Wavelength Infra-Red (LWIR) radiation propagates through common obscurants such as dust, smoke and fog, so thermal imaging cameras can enhance transportation safety under inclement conditions. For example, cameras mounted in automobiles or along railways will protect vehicle occupants and pedestrians by helping prevent collisions. The same benefits will also improve safety and increase efficacy of police, firefighters and EMTs. Finally, remotely monitored cameras will increase independence of elderly and high medical risk individuals while respecting their privacy as LWIR images preserve the anonymity of the subject. Finally, thermal imaging-equipped smart appliances can regulate lighting and HVAC delivery based upon occupancy detection to reduce residential and commercial energy consumption. In agriculture, thermal imaging can be used in conjunction with data processing to conserve water and direct the use of pesticides and fertilizer more efficiently.This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I Project has the potential to advance the frontiers of knowledge in the areas of micro-fabrication, Long Wavelength Infra-Red (LWIR) optics, wafer level camera assembly, and reduced form factor thermal imaging cameras. The LWIR lens technology leverages advancements from the semiconductor and MEMS / MOEMS industries to enable never before realized lens topologies. The lens technology pursued in this project will replace traditional germanium or chalcogenide glass lenses, which are expensive to manufacture and bulky. The unique lens design and fabrication approach further enable Wafer-Level Packaging (WLP) and Wafer-Level Optics (WLO), which extend the state-of-the-art by allowing, for the first time, the lens to be assembled on to the thermal imaging array at the wafer-level rather than at the individual die level, which results in significant reduction in cost, size and weight. This research will involve lens design and fabrication, lens assembly on to a thermal imaging array, and finally, testing and benchmarking of the camera performance. Finally, this project advances the study and usage of dielectric metamaterials by developing custom predictive models for using Finite-Difference Time-Domain (FDTD) simulations as an input for traditional ray tracing optical design software.