A newly fabricated Infrared Scene Projector (IRSP) configured for the Long Wave IR (LWIR) regime has demonstrated simulated apparent temperatures exceeding 1500 oC, more than doubling the maximum temperature capability of prior pixilated scene projector devices. Since the entire array surface is capable of this high temperature output, the same device can be used to generate both the moderate temperature scene background and an unlimited number of high temperature targets in the scene, without having to optically combine a few discrete "hot spot" generators. This performance was enabled by advances in a new large pixel, high voltage, 16-bit backplane Spatial Light Modulator (SLM) coupled with an intense spectral illumination source, and special formulation liquid crystal (LC). The new LC formulation and SLM configuration also achieves an effective usable frame rate of up to 200Hz capability. Performance characterization and resulting data will be discussed in the paper.

Date Published: 23 April 2010
PDF: 7 pages
Proc. SPIE 7663, Technologies for Synthetic Environments: Hardware-in-the-Loop Testing XV, 76630S (23 April 2010); doi: 10.1117/12.850184

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 7663:
Technologies for Synthetic Environments: Hardware-in-the-Loop Testing XV
James A. Buford Jr.; Robert Lee Murrer Jr., Editor(s)