Liquid Crystal Infrared (LC-IR) Microcamera

To address the DARPA interest in extremely lightweight, low-power thermal microcameras for use on microvehicles, Physical Optics Corporation (POC) proposes to develop a new liquid crystal infrared (LC-IR) microcamera, highly sensitive in the thermal waveband, requiring no cooling, and with high resolution and uniformity. The proposed system is based on three POC innovations: (1) new implementation of liquid crystal (LC) resonance absorption at 3.5-9.9 microns; (2) novel use of exponential sensitivity of LC rotational viscosity to temperature, monitored by capacitance variation of LC FPA pixels; and (3) novel use of active thermostabilization through leakage current, expanding the low temperature operating range. LC FPA fabrication is based on mature display technology compatible with standard integrated circuit processes, and has the advantages of reliability, low power consumption, small-size, low weight and cost, and compatibility with commercially available integrated readout circuits supporting low-voltage differential signaling standards. In Phase I POC will demonstrate the feasibility of our approach with a LC-IR microcamera prototype operating with 1 x 32 pixel focal plane array over a wide temperature range. In Phase II POC will develop a LC-IR microcamera prototype suitable for the Wasp microair vehicle.