Megapixel Uncooled Photomechanical LWIR Imager

Agiltron has developed a breakthrough modular IR imaging technology that employs a photomechanical effect, in which an array of micro-machined sensor pixels converts IR radiation into visible light signals that can be optically detected by commercial off-the-shelf CMOS or CCD visible-light imagers. With commercial CMOS imagers achieving multi-megapixel resolution, the resolution of the modular Agiltron IR imager is thus only limited by the number of micro-machined sensors in the sensor pixel array. Scaling to higher resolution becomes only a matter of repeating the pixel structure by conventional MEMS fabrication, which already is capable of producing multi-megapixel devices, as exemplified by the Texas Instruments DLP display chips. High frame rates are readily achieved by using low-cost off-the-shelf CMOS imagers capable of frame rates of 500 fps and higher. In this manner, the Agiltron photomechanical IR imager has the unique capability to be produced with greater than one megapixel resolution and frame rates at 30 fps and above, yet only 1 W power consumption. Sensor array packaging is also greatly simplified and robust, as no electrical connections need to be incorporated. By leveraging Agiltron’s vertically integrated manufacturing model, a 1280×960 LWIR imager meeting USSOCOM needs will be demonstrated in Phase II.