Low Cost Advanced Personal Communicator (APC)

Indigo Systems proposes to design and produce a 1024x2048 format high performance Large Format Resistive Array (LFRA) for Infrared Scene Projector (IRSP) applications. The proposed project will leverage Indigo's recently developed 512x512 MIRAGE commercialoff-the-shelf (COTS) micro-emitter array technology. Additionally, to the extent possible, our current development activities for a 1024x1024 LFRA will be leveraged to insure project synergy and success.PHASE I: During phase 1 Indigo proposes to advance the 1024x2048 LFRA design from concept through the preliminary design stage of the Indigo detailed integrated circuit design process. During this activity the requirements and specifications for thedevice will be developed. Complete schematics of the different functional blocks and signal chain will be simulated and evaluated. The outcome of this phase is the Preliminary Design of the ROIC, including concepts studied and an interface description fora high bandwidth scene projector system during. This effort will last 4 months.PHASE I Option: The Phase I continuation (Phase I Option) will last 2 months during which time Indigo will begin the detailed design process for the 1024x2048 LFRA. The outcome will be an Interim Design Report.The objective of the proposed 1024x2048 LFRA development activity is to begin to produce the next generation in LFRA devices for scene stimulation. The current generation of IRSPs using resistive arrays contain on the order of 512x512 emitter pixels. Thesedevices are introducing performance limitations in the testing of many modern currently fielded sensor systems. They do not provide the necessary resolution and FOV coverage to adequately test advanced sensors that are currently under development (i.e.,advanced target acquisition sensors, threat warning sensors, IR search and track sensors, surveillance and reconnaissance sensors, and missile seekers). This project will facilitate the transition of existing mature resistive array technology to largerformat resistive array based IRSPs for testing next generation IR sensor systems that will require testing in FY01-03.