Rad-Hard Neuromorphic Infrared Imager

Alphacore will develop a radiation-hardened neuromorphic readout integrated circuit (ROIC) for infrared (IR) wavelengths. The company’s existing in-house-developed revenue generating commercial high-speed imager will be used as the starting point, and it will be adapted to meet the identified critical defense needs. It will be a unique product, the first neuromorphic imager available in the IR wavelength range, precisely addressing the critically needed product DAF still lacks in its sensor arsenal. IR sensitivity enables imaging in both daytime and nighttime. Many remote sensing defense applications require detection and imaging of the thermal signatures of the targets and scenes, and thus require sensitivity either in the midwave (MWIR) or longwave (LWIR) wavelength bands.  Alphacore’s solution will deliver advanced, high-sensitivity MWIR capability and, due to its unique neuromorphic architecture, it will have an exceptionally low data latency and pixel reset time (both below 10us), providing excellent real-time tracking of fast targets. Other significant benefits of the neuromorphic architecture are low size, weight, power, and cost (SWaP-C), and drastically reduced downstream data processing requirements. Another key benefit is that the ROIC will be hardened against space and strategic radiation environments, keeping in mind that DAF has already identified several uses that require radiation hardness for this sensor. The ROIC will be optimized for use with most common cryogenically-cooled MWIR detectors, such as Mercury Cadmium Telluride (MCT) and Strained Super Lattice (SLS) Type 2 detectors. The proposed ROIC is the key enabler of the capability DAF currently lacks and is exactly what the DAF Stakeholders have requested from Alphacore. Note that the ROIC will be a marketable standalone product as specified for DAF, and that Alphacore also plans to build a complete camera product around the ROIC after it has been thoroughly evaluated.