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

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.