Sofradir Lunches Smallest, Lowest Pitch TV Format Infrared Detector
Advanced 640x512 15 µm pitch MWIR detector sets new industry standards for IR detector performance, size, and price
Paris -- Sofradir, a developer and manufacturer of advanced infrared detectors for military, space and industrial applications, today announced Scorpio, the industry's first TV format (640x512) 15 µm pitch infrared detector that offers the performance of full TV for the price of quarter TV. The new detector responds to price pressures from defense and security equipment manufacturers which are driving optoelectronic suppliers to seek innovative ways to lower costs. Sofradir has produced a small, very high resolution detector that brings substantial savings to the overall system by taking its Mercury Cadmium Telluride (MCT) material and process as well as its hybridization technology to the next even more advanced level of sophistication. This brings significant benefits to defense and security equipment makers, worldwide, who can use this product in portable thermal imagers, missile seekers and other surveillance, targeting and homing infrared equipment. The technological improvements present in Scorpio will also open up new applications for full TV.
Scorpio offers four times the spatial performance for a price similar to that of the earlier generation of 320x256 detectors. This brings significant benefits to defense and security equipment makers, worldwide, who can use this product in portable thermal imagers, missile seekers and other surveillance, targeting and homing infrared equipment. The technological improvements present in Scorpio will also open up new applications for full TV.
Scorpio operates in the 3 -5 µm waveband, comes with the market's smallest cryo- cooler and has four times more pixels than standard 320x256 mid-wave infrared detectors. This enables higher sensitivity, low input power consumption and better image quality at greater distances. Significant advances in the reduction of pixel pitch (miniscule dots of resolution) have been critical in improving performance as well as size reduction, making Scorpio affordable for even price sensitive industrial applications, such as IR goggles.
"The launch of Scorpio is a demonstration of Sofradir's technological leadership and builds on 18 years' success in the infrared detector market," said Philippe Bensussan, CEO of Sofradir, whose annual sales top $62 M. "Sofradir aims to displace the 320x256 30 µm MWIR with Scorpio, establishing it as the new industry standard in infrared detectors because of its user-friendly TV format, vastly increased performance, and reduced cost".
The image quality of an infrared detector depends on the spatial resolution or number of pixels, which means the higher the pixels, the better the image. "Until the late 1990's, the market for infrared detectors (2D staring arrays) has been mainly missile applications or medium performance FLIR, where 320x256 array formats have been mostly used," said Philippe Tribolet, Technical Director at Sofradir.
Since they came on to the market in 1995, demand for infrared detectors with larger formats and better resolution for use in other applications has grown. "Large format IR detectors with increased spatial resolution were either unavailable or unaffordable, until Scorpio. We have quadrupled the pixels and reduced the pitch to 15µm. These are new and very powerful features," Tribolet added.
Just as with compact disks, size reduction is a key driver to lowering costs. Accomplishing a high resolution within a small format, thereby lowering the overall cost of the system requires reducing the pitch, but not all technologies are able to achieve this. Unlike competing technologies in the manufacture of IR detectors such as InSb (Indium Antimonide), Sofradir's hybridization MCT technology, a silicon-like implantation process that it is high yield and has well-established, simplified steps, is proving the most proficient at controlling the pixel diodes and the accuracy of Indium bump positioning (these bumps are the connection pads that seal the detection circuit and the read out integrated circuit together). This control enables Sofradir to make smaller diodes, thus smaller detectors.
As well as reducing the size of key parameters, another issue vital to improved performance is the elimination of complex functions used to compensate poor resolution. For example, Scorpio removes the need for Microscanning, a 2x2 scan covering the whole image used in 320x256 MWIRs to obtain a TV image format. "Customers can get TV quality images without microscanning. If they keep it, then they get a high-definition TV format and therefore a better quality image. In either case, they get a better detection range," said Felix Zutterman, business development director.
Sofradir will be demonstrating Scorpio at SPIE's Defense and Security Conference, booth #736, April 13 - 15, 2004 in Orlando, FL. A technical paper on "Lightweight, compact and affordable MW TV format IR detectors" will also be presented, April 13 - Session 5.
Source: Sofradir