Sofradir demos a video-quality 15-micron-pitch LWIR detector

Orlando, FL--Sofradir (Paris, France) is demonstrating a 640 x 512 15-micron-pitch IR detector featuring video-quality VGA imaging in the longwave IR (LWIR) band; the demo is being held at the SPIE Defense, Security and Sensing symposium (DSS; April 5 to 9, Orlando, FL) at Sofradir's booth #635. The product is expected to be commercially available in June 2010.

Small pitch without blooming
The key point in the development of the device, according to Sofradir, was addressing the problem of blooming in a 15-micron-pitch LWIR device. Blooming occurs when one pixel has too much illumination, which overflows into a neighboring pixel. Sofradir already uses a mature technology that eliminates blooming in its LWIR detector product line; for the small-pitch Scorpio VGA LWIR focal-plane array, Sofradir developed a new approach.

The company says that the Scorpio VGA LWIR can operate at temperatures of up to 100 K (approx -173 °C) -- an advantage over the industry-standard 80 K operating temperature, as less input power for cooling is required, resulting in a more reliable cooler and longer autonomy for battery-operated equipment.

The VGA LWIR detector will expand Sofradir's range of small-pixel-pitch video-quality IR detectors from the midwave IR to the longwave IR band. The company introduced the first 640 x 512 mid-wavelength IR (MWIR) 15-micron-pitch detector to the market in 2004. Small-pixel-pitch IR detectors are important in increasing performance (increased spatial resolution) and bringing new possible system architectures to defense and security equipment makers.