Infrared (IR) Multispectral Imager for the Next Generation EKV

We propose a new hyperspectral imaging technique based on a novel optical processor to enable the mid course characterization of a ballistic missile. The optical processor allows for the unprecedented capture of all three dimensions (two spatial and one spectral) of the data cube simultaneously. This device uses a 2-dimensional hyper-pixel array (HPA), that records the 2-D image and the spectrum of each pixel in each frame of data. Since the proprietary HPA design uses an optical parallel processor, it allows thousands of hyperpixels to be processed in parallel, at the speed of light. This leads to the virtually instantaneous creation of the data cube. The proposed system will have no moving parts, and have low signal-to-noise, which makes it ideal for imaging rapidly occurring events.