Intelligent Imaging System

The development of two different types of image sensors integrated in image processing computers is proposed. The first kind of sensors is an advanced 512x512 sized photodiode array with locally adaptive integration time control. The specialty of the local control is that it depends on the illumination of the neighboring pixels. The adaptive sensor control method and the neighborhood size are fully programmable. This sensor array will be sensitive in the visual range and also in the lower end of the near IR. The sensor array will be embedded in a CNN technology based focal plane sensor-processor array. This large size processor array will have close to 1 TerOPS computational power, and it will enable above 10,000 Fps operation. It will have a roughly 1000 times speed advantage compared to a 3GHz Pentium processor, while its power consumption will be only a few watts. The second kind of sensor will be an array of nanoantennas and nonlinear detectors for direct detection at wavelengths from the far infrared into the THz regime. The design of nanoantennas for long-wavelength infrared and THz radiation will be explored, and evaluation of possible nonlinear devices for direct detection at the antenna feed will be performed. Nano-mesa Si Schottky detectors and metal-oxide-metal tunnel diodes will be evaluated for use as the detector, with a down-selection to the most promising device candidate and antenna design for co-integration with the CNN technology based processor.