Sensors Unlimited Awarded Grant for Imaging/Ranging Camera

Sensors Unlimited Inc. of Princeton, N.J., has received a Phase 1b, 12-month, $2 million contract to develop a high-frame-rate camera for combined imaging and rangefinding using an in-pixel digitized monolithic positive-intrinsic-negative/avalanche photodiode focal plane array. The award is funded by the Missile Defense Agency and managed by the US Air Force.

Following demonstration of its patented array in Phase 1a, the company, a supplier of short-wave IR imaging products based on InGaAs technology, will develop a camera that offers high-resolution three-dimensional imaging, wavefront sensing and low-light-level imaging. Enabling the military to track objects at high speeds, the camera has frame rates as high as 15,000 per second for a 128 × 128-pixel window. Commercial applications of the device include collision avoidance and automatic surveying.