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Micro Imagers for Sensing (MISI)
Program Manager: Dr. Stuart Horn
With the impetus toward micro-air and -ground vehicles for military applications, there is a compelling need for imaging micro-sensors compatible with these small platforms. Dramatic reduction in size and weight also significantly impacts the format of individual warfighter systems, opening the way to new sensor concepts especially in head-mounted applications. The Micro-Sensors for Imaging Program addresses technology to meet theses needs, achieving a dramatic reduction in the size and weight of short wave infrared (SWIR) imaging sensors for both micro-air vehicle and head-mounted applications. Goals are to achieve a SWIR micro-air vehicle camera, including optics, detector and electronics, with a weight of ten (10) grams and a target recognition range of one-hundred (100) meters. This stringent weight budget requires comprehensive reassessment of the approaches to camera component technology, leading to a SWIR micro-camera-on-a-chip. In addition, the micro-air vehicle sensor will have a horizontal field of view of forty (40) degrees, presenting optics design and fabrication challenges to simultaneously realize high optical quality, wide field of view and extremely light weight. The detector array must achieve high performance with low dark current at the ambient temperature, without benefit of cooling, since cooling components can add significantly to the weight. Innovative temperature compensation approaches must be implemented to maintain uniformity across the array as the ambient temperature changes, in additional to detector packaging approaches that maintain a stable environment, without significantly increasing weight. These innovative microsystem technologies will also address the head-mounted SWIR sensor to realize a light weight camera compatible with ballistic goggles.