Very compact, high performance IR emissive source array

Generation of extended IR scenes without flicker is critical to many DoD applications. The current technology is limited in temperature, crosstalk, refresh rate, controllability, heat dissipation, and packaging. Source technology advancements are needed to create IR source elements that can be independently controlled in frequency, temperature, and emission duration. K Lab Corporation, proposes to develop a novel thin film IR source array by using wide bandgap SiC and unique thermal barrier structure. This IR source array will possess many novel properties for this application which are high temperature operation of up to 1000°C, temperature rise and fall rate in the range of 1ms and 10s ms, minimized crosstalk at level of 1%. Another advantage of the array will be its ability to scale down to very small element size. Array size of 40x40 on a 4"x4" emitting area with a fill factor of 50% can be easily achieved using the design. In Phase I, K Lab will demonstrate the proposed concept using 4x4 small emitter array. A fully functional 4"x4" array containing up to 40x40 elements in a densely packed configuration will be demonstrated in the Phase II of the program.