Robert H. Murphy

Small pixel uncooled imaging FPAs and applications

BAE Systems continues to make dramatic progress in uncooled microbolometer sensors and applications. This paper will review the latest advancements in microbolometer technology at BAE Systems, including the development status of 17 micrometer pixel pitch detectors and imaging modules which are entering production and will be finding their way into BAE Systems products and applications. Benefits include increased die per wafer and potential benefits to SWAP for many applications. Applications include thermal weapons sights, thermal imaging modules for remote weapon stations, vehicle situational awareness sensors and mast/pole mounted sensors.

Recent technology advancements and applications of advanced uncooled imagers

BAE Systems has made dramatic progress in uncooled microbolometer sensors and applications in the last year. The topics covered in this paper are: results and video from our latest 640x480 FPAs with sensitivities of better than 50 mK (f/1) and overviews of systems for military and commercial applications.

Technology advancements for small lightweight low-power uncooled IR imagers for homeland defense

This paper describes the inherent advantages of IR uncooled imagers in general, and the SCC500 in particular, for homeland defense. The SCC500 is a small, lightweight, low power, high performance uncooled imager that began production shipments in the spring of 2003. Key technologies described are dynamic range control, contrast enhancement and electronic zoom. Availability of these advanced features in production products are also described.

Improvements in state-of-the-art uncooled microbolometer system performance based on volume manufacturing experience

Starting in the early 1990’s, BAE SYSTEMS began a significant investment in the development of MicroIR Uncooled Microbolometers. 160 x 120, 320 x 240, and 640 x 480 focal plane array (FPA) technology advances in both large pixel and small pixel format have driven Noise Equivalent Temperature Difference (NETD), power, size, weight, and price lower. These improvements have resulted in many new applications that previously could not afford larger, heavier, costlier cooled systems. While advancements in state of the art performance have been published regularly at Aerosense and other industry forums, far less has been discussed on the performance advances that have occurred as a result of volume manufacturing. This paper describes the improvements in performance that have been a result of BAE SYSTEMS leadership position in MicroIR microbolometer manufacturing. With over 15,000 units shipped through 2002, ranging from Standard Imaging Modules (SIM) to Standard Camera Cores (SCC) to complete imaging systems, the cumulative expertise gathered from this manufacturing experience over the past seven years has also pushed the state of the art system performance, in ways that single/small quantity technology demonstrators never could. Comparisons of temporal NETD, spatial NETD, dynamic range, operability, throughput, capacity, and other key metrics from early manufacturing lots to the present will be presented to demonstrate the advances that can only be achieved through volume manufacturing.

SCC500: next-generation infrared imaging camera core products with highly flexible architecture for unique camera designs

A new 4th generation MicroIR architecture is introduced as the latest in the highly successful Standard Camera Core (SCC) series by BAE SYSTEMS to offer an infrared imaging engine with greatly reduced size, weight, power, and cost. The advanced SCC500 architecture provides great flexibility in configuration to include multiple resolutions, an industry standard Real Time Operating System (RTOS) for customer specific software application plug-ins, and a highly modular construction for unique physical and interface options. These microbolometer based camera cores offer outstanding and reliable performance over an extended operating temperature range to meet the demanding requirements of real-world environments. A highly integrated lens and shutter is included in the new SCC500 product enabling easy, drop-in camera designs for quick time-to-market product introductions.