Advances in imaging technology have huge impact on our daily lives. Innovations in optics, focal plane arrays (FPA), microelectronics and computation have revolutionized camera design. As a result, new approaches to camera design and low cost manufacturing is now possible. These advances are clearly evident in visible wavelength band due to pixel scaling, improvements in silicon material and CMOS technology. CMOS cameras are available in cell phones and many other consumer products. Advances in infrared imaging technology have been slow due to market volume and many technological barriers in detector materials, optics and fundamental limits imposed by the scaling laws of optics. There is of course much room for improvements in both, visible and infrared imaging technology. This paper highlights various technology development projects at DARPA to advance the imaging technology for both, visible and infrared. Challenges and potentials solutions are highlighted in areas related to wide field-of-view camera design, small pitch pixel, broadband and multiband detectors and focal plane arrays.

Date Published: 31 May 2012
PDF: 9 pages
Proc. SPIE 8353, Infrared Technology and Applications XXXVIII, 835302 (31 May 2012); doi: 10.1117/12.923682

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 8353:
Infrared Technology and Applications XXXVIII
Bjørn F. Andresen; Gabor F. Fulop; Paul R. Norton, Editor(s)